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Gender Roles in the Awakening

In: English and Literature

Submitted By ipsumdolorable
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The Awakening by Kate Chopin challenges many gendered ideas of the time and explores one woman’s desires, some sexual, and some spiritual.
In chapter 7 of The Awakening the main character, Edna, questions her wifely duties and her role in her family as well as society. Edna walks with Adele, another woman at the estate, to the shore, and recants her with a childhood memory of “walking diagonally across a big field. [Her] sun-bonnet obstructed her view. [She] could only see the green stretch before [her], and it felt as if [she] might walk on forever, without coming to the end of it” (#). The Awakening explores female societal roles in depth, so this seemingly pointless passage may have a much more complex look into Edna’s current inner turmoil. She notes the seemingly endless field, this may be alluding to the vast expanse of life and directions there chosen. She also makes special note of the bonnet obstructing her view, constricting it to only what is currently in front of her. Chopin definitely makes it clear that women have certain expectations placed on them, their personal choices and societal standing predetermined by the gender assigned to them at birth, but Edna feels confined, which is something not usually brought up in the time period. In this chapter the reader is introduced to the beginnings of Edna's rebellious feelings. She goes into depth of her issues living up to what is expected of women, (she isn't extremely attentive of her husband and children, and thinks about herself more often.) This was mentioned earlier in the book when one of the children was sick and Edna’s husband asks her to care for him. This is a duty assumed by the mother in this time period, Edna, however, performs it with a begrudging and bewildered nature. She is not the typical female trope, leaving herself and those around her genuinely confused. Because of this she spends

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