Major Themes In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

Kate Chopin 's career went downhill shortly after The Awakening ("The Awakening"). It was widely criticized, but Kate did not give up on her writing. Themes are important to a story 's plot line because it gives a reason to why the story is being told. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, freedom, the search for oneself, and loneliness are themes that are portrayed throughout the novel (Chopin). One theme that has played throughout the novel is freedom ("The Awakening"). Edna wants to find freedom because she feels trapped in her life. Edna Pontellier wants to know what it is like to live outside of being a wife and a mother. Edna tasted a little bit of freedom from her children whenever they went to Iberville. To gain freedom from her husband, she refuses to have sexual relations with him, and she abruptly stopped her Tuesday obligations of meeting people at the house which made him furious. Edna wants to rent her own place instead of living at home. She wants to be free from all duties that come with her husband 's house. Edna earns her own income to pay for her house so

The last theme throughout The Awakening is Edna 's alienation and loneliness ("The Awakening"). Edna Pontellier is unconnected by her own thoughts. She thinks that if she could make a difference in her life then she would be able to hang around with people more like her and not the people who judge her. Mademoiselle Reisz is a good example of how society judges her because she is not like most. She is unmarried and lives alone, and she 's talented at playing the piano. No one really knows that she is because she does not play publicity for the reason being she is judged. Edna begins to feel lonely, and she alienates herself from most of society (Chopin). When she took herself away from society, she found things out about the city that she never would have found. Because she took herself away from people, the loneliness sets in, and it causes her to go make herself drown in the ocean ("The