“She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves,”- Kate Chopin. Edna goes through life not completely fitting in and finally is able to break free. With breaking free Edna discovers the various qualities in a man that she wants but finds only certain qualities in certain men. The three main men in “Awakening” have the qualities she wants but in the end, cannot have. These three men are Leonce Pontellier, the husband, Robert Lebrun, the emotional need, and Alcee Arobin, the physical need,
In “Awakening” the first man that shows the qualities Enda wants in a man is her husband Leonce Pontellier. Leonce is the husband that Edna should have. Leonce and Edna share a father/daughter type relationship, Leonce wants her to fit the role of a wife and mother, and worries about Edna throughout the novel. Edna and Leonce share a father/daughter relationship due to Edna doing as she pleases and Leonce following behind cleaning up the mess Edna leaves in her wake. “He grasped the situation with his usual promptness and handled it with his well-known business tact and cleverness,” Leonce needed to fix the messes that Edna created because he needed to save face to the outside world. The main situation that Leonce had to clean up is, Edna moving to a different home. “And in an incredibly short time the Pontellier
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Edna is has awakened herself through her experiences with the three main men in her life in “Awakening”. Leonce, Robert, and Alcee help Edna to discover her needs but in the end, she cannot be with any of the men because they will not be enough for her down the line. These three men play the roles of husband, emotional need, and physical need. As Edna discovers these qualities in the men, she sees that she will not be able to live her life out with them due to none of the men containing all these qualities Edna