The Role Of Happiness In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna seeks peace and happiness through finding where she fits among other characters and by avoiding the negative effects that people have on her by isolating herself. Edna Pontellier, a young mother in New Orleans is married to a very successful proud man, Mr. Pontellier and together they have 2 sons. As a family they go on vacations to Grand Isle, where Edna meets Robert a secret love interest, and begins to learn that her unhappiness is rooted in her responsibilities as a mother and wife. Throughout the novel, Chopin uses Edna’s reliance on other characters, such as Mr. Pontellier, and their reliance on her, to regulate her happiness. Change occurs when Edna realizes that her happiness will only come when she is separate from society, but she eventually understands that she cannot do this in the life she is living and chooses to simply stop living it.

Pontellier’s wishes, causing her to be in her unhappiest state of mind. She is still surrendering to the mother woman responsibilities that she feels society is forcing upon her. Edna must continue to care for her kids, be polite to her husband, stay in the house on the days that people can come to visit her, and make sure their family reflects well on the image of her husband. During this time we learn of Edna’s unhappiness and that she feels caged in by the rules of marriage in the world that she lives in. Edna views her marriage as a jail she cannot escape. She expresses her hate for the bond when she is alone in her bedroom pacing around in