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The Portrayal Of Women In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

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The novel, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, shows the way people view women and the roles that they were expected to fill by society. Edna Pontellier is a traditional married woman who does not know what she is capable of until she puts her strength to the test. “A feeling of exculpation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and soul” (Chopin 31). Women did not know what they are capable of. The patriarchal society they live in degrades them, so they did not know that they possessed the potential to be just as powerful as men are. Therefore, they doubted themselves because of the way society portrayed them. According to society, women were delicate and caring beings, they could

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