The book, the awakening, not only raises the question of a woman’s right to be an individual and to reject the demands of family and motherhood; the novel also raises the question of how the liberated woman should use her liberty. Discuss Edna as a woman

Kate Chopin : A Re-Awakening

In The Awakening , Kate Chopin created a woman protagonist who not only rebelled wholeheartedly against the stifling demands a patriarchal society made to its womenfolk but did so at a time when even the staunchest feminists could not imagine a rebellion of these dimension Quite naturally , publication of The Awakening spelt doom for Chopin 's literary career . The book caused a scandal for its unabashed representation of sexual desires of women (actually one particular woman , the protagonist , Edna . For Edna , living in the Victorian times not only

shows the courage of voicing her own desires and wants freely but also acts upon them flouting all social conventions and decorum Although , the ending , with Edna swimming into the open sea and drowning either inadvertently or courting death for herself , is rather ambiguous Chopin 's rebellious protagonist neither repents nor regrets a single decision taken by her at any point of the story . This would endeavor to show that Edna can be rightly called one of the first martyrs of woman rights movement that , contrary to early interpretations , she knew very well what she was asking for and that her suicide at the end of the novel in no way constitute a defeat on her part

However , before going into the analysis of the novel it is necessary to delve into its primary reception in 1899 . This would provide a very clear picture of the social conditions of America at the end of the nineteenth century and put the `new woman ' like Edna in its proper perspective . This analysis would also throw considerable light on Edna 's motivations and choices . Of course , Edna 's rebellion was a bit too much even for the enlightened critics of the late nineteenth century America In spite of the fact that the Women 's Right movement had been gaining in dimensions since 1848 when the first Women 's Rights meeting was held in the country , in spite of the fact that massive urbanization and industrialization had completely revolutionized the American social structure bringing with it boons such as emancipation of women , although the latest scientific theories (viz . Darwin 's ) had struck a deathblow to the traditional concepts of patriarchy preserved and encouraged by religion as much as society for so long , Kate Chopin 's protagonist Edna was judged (mostly by men ) and found guilty of many a crimes Immediately after its publication , both Chopin and The Awakening were bombarded with charges of immorality , of vulgarity , of sexual impurity so on and so forth . The disappointment was greater owing to the fact that Chopin was an established author at the time when she published the novel . The book was tagged to be yet another exercise in the overworked field of sex fiction (Seyersted 219 . Francis Porcher , a contemporary author wished that she had not written her novel (Culley 145 ) for it leaves one sick of human nature (Culley 146 The Daily Globe Democrat , completely misreading the story , called Edna 's suicide a...