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How Does Edna Pontellier's Search For Freedom

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In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening Edna Pontellier is searching for the meaning and purpose of her life. The way that she was raised differs from the Creole culture that she marries into where the women stay home to take care of the household and give their lives to their families. Edna disagrees with this and decides that she will start living for herself and do whatever she wants instead of what the society thinks she should do. The first thing she must do is gain her independence and freedom but she goes about this in the worst way by not caring for her children, leaving her husband without any concern, and then cheating on her husband. Edna is portrayed as mean, rebellious, and independent throughout the novella. Edna wants her independence from the society that she lives in but what she does not take into consideration is how …show more content…

While struggling for her independence and freedom she finds her own way to go against the society and its standards. When invited to go to the beach with Robert, Edna weighs her options and chooses to do what she knows that she should not. Chopin states “Edna Pontellier could not have told why, wishing to go to the beach with Robert, she should in the first place have declined and in the second place have followed in obedience to one of the two contradictory impulses which impelled her.” (15) Instead of staying at home Edna decides that she will start living for herself and do whatever she deems fit. Later her husband sees this trait when she writes him a letter to tell him that she is going to move into a house down the street. After hearing this Leonce immediately writes “her a letter of unqualified disapproval and remonstrance. She had given reasons which he was unwilling to acknowledge as adequate.” (62) Edna’s husband does not see any reason why she would want to leave their house and believes that she might be going insane. These rebellious acts lead to Edna’s

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