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The Role Of Motherhood In The Awakening By Kate Chopin

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Motherhood comes with an inherent commitment and certain basic expectations that they need to meet. In Kate Chopins, The Awakening, Edna Pontellier is the mother of two boys and is judged for the way she treats her role as a mother. In today's society, her style of motherhood would be frowned upon but is more than acceptable for this time period seeing as the expectations of motherhood are completely different. She makes sure that her kids are fed, clothed, and have a roof over their heads which is a better life than most. Edna loves her children, she makes sure their needs are met and acts in their best interests which is the epitome of a good mother.
A child is able to thrive in a safe and healthy environment, which Edna provides for her …show more content…

Edna recognizes that her children live a sheltered life and occasionally need new experiences which is why she sends them off with their grandmother. She truly wants to see her kids happy and does everything in her power to make sure they have the best experiences possible. Edna finds herself wholly alone after Léonce leaves for work and “Old Madame Pontellier had come herself and carried them off to Iberville … She wished them to taste something of the life their father had lived and known and loved when he, too, was a little child”(Chopin 125). Edna slowly pulls away from the confines of her her life, more specifically her marriage, leaving her kids out of the awkward tension that is an unhappy marriage. She continues to show her children she loves them by spending time with them and making sure they are happy and healthy one last time. After settling into the pigeon house, “Edna went up and spend a week with her children in Iberville … She lived with them a whole week long, giving them all of herself and gathering and filling herself with their young existence”(Chopin 151). Although society often views suicide as selfish, Ednas’ suicide was a sort of compassionate release. If she had truly abandoned her life as a mother and wife, her children would have lived their whole lives wondering

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As Edna attempts to escape from Léonce’s possessive hold on her, she eventually moves into a pigeon home and sets focus on her career as an aspiring painter. After several days Edna realizes “the pigeon home pleased her… Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual” (Chopin 127). Although at first saddened after leaving her children, she comes to appreciate the simplicity of her new, developing life. The lifestyle she is in pursuit of does not allow her the time to be managing and raising young adolescents.

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