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Breaking The Social Norm In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

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No matter how old we are, we have all heard the daunting phrase from our parents in which they respond to our complaint with, ‘life just isn’t fair’. Though it’s true life isn’t fair, for women living in the “dining-room servant” (Chopin 5) and “starched skirt” (Chopin 5) days, life was restricted to societal rules. In Kate Chopin's The Awakening, she demonstrates the impossibilities and hopelessness of women breaking the social norm by unfolding a story of a young married Mrs. Pontellier in which her goals in defiance ultimately costs her her life.
Chopin highlights the “struggle over ideologies” (Sprinkle 1) by utilizing parallel incidents where the two outcomes exemplify the unfairness women faced. One casual evening Edna asked her husband if he would …show more content…

Her discontent for her marriage strives her to easily fall in love with young and adventurous Robert and a loyal and romantic Arobin. Her new relationship with Arobin awakened her inner sensuality and “the excitement came back upon her like a remittent fever” (Chopin 67) because the connection with her husband was hesitant and she believes she had “married without love as an excuse” (Chopin 68). She even claims that she doesn’t love Arobin but “his presence” is enough to enrapture her thoughts and emotions. And when Robert expressed to Edna his love yet then leaves her with a disheartened note saying goodbye forever, Edna then results to take her life for she believes it is no longer worth living and drowns herself in the impossibilities of being with her true love Robert. These two relationships, though superficial and have no proper emotional grounding, push Edna to realize her self-discovery and awakening will never be truly accepted because of her role in society and resolves to death as her only

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