Importance Of Settings In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

In Kate Chopin’s novel “The Awakening” Edna Pontellier - the protagonist - has a rebirth of her own and becoming a independent, sensual, and feeling women in the oppressive society Edna lives in. Throughout the novel Edna fluctuates between two different settings - her home in New Orleans and the summer house in Grand Isle. The Settings in the novel caused both the conflict and the ultimate result of Edna committing suicide, and leaving the reader wondering still if Edna really found her true setting where she could finally be herself. The novel starts in Grand Isle, where Edna and her family summer home is located. The summer home is more of a luxury compared to her home in New Orleans which is more of a homey feeling. To Edna, Grand Isle is an extravagant and full of

Chopin identfly’s the first problem for Edna, “Mrs. Pontellier was not a woman given to confidences, a characteristic hitherto contrary to her nature. Even as a child, she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life-that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions (Ch. 7, p. 13). When Edna was in Grand Isle everyday she would go down to the beach and spent time and relax. She felt at most with herself when she was at the beach. But was she was back at home in New Orleans she felt she was confined to her desolate like home. The Grand Isle is such important place for Edna because this is where she learns to be open and passionate. But even a more important key point is this is where she starts her awakening. Readers could argue in the novel that Edna founds a niche by the ocean and Chopin lets us know by