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What Is The Feminism In The Awakening

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Feminism in The Awakening Feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. In the novel The Awakening, Edna Pontellier has her own awakening and sees freedom that men in her society have, and she suddenly wants a taste of that freedom. She dismisses all of her expectations that society has put on her just to get that freedom. She forgets about some of the important people in her including her husband and children. Women during Edna’s time were seen to just follow the rules and not speak out. In The Awakening Edna suddenly disregards her societal expectations such as her duties as a woman, mother, and wife. In the novel Edna has an awakening, and she suddenly defies against what …show more content…

Edna wants freedom so badly that she is forgetting about her duties with anything in her life. Her husband, Leonce, can start to see the change in his wife. This is starting to concern him because she normally does not act like this. Leonce and the rest of society has certain duties that they expect Edna to follow through with. After her awakening, she no longer wants to complete these tasks. She does not want to be told what to do, or be held down by society’s standards. For example, in the novel Edna does not complete one of her duties, “There were a good many,” replied Edna, who was eating her soup with evident satisfaction. “I found their cards when I got home; I was out.” “Out!” exclaimed her husband, with something like genuine consternation in his voice as he laid down the vinegar cruet and looked at her through his glasses. “Why, what could have taken you out on Tuesday? What did you have to do?” “Nothing. I simply felt like going out, and I went out.” “Well, I hope you left some suitable excuse,” said her husband, somewhat appeased, as he added a dash of cayenne pepper to the soup. “No, I left no excuse. I told Joe to say I was out, that was all” (Chopin 50-51). Edna no longer wanted to do something because her husband or society expected her to do it. If she did not want to do it, she simply would not do it. She did not want to be held down by what society expected from her. She wanted to become her own person. She found another way to gain freedom. She realized that men had a sense of freedom when they lived on their own. So, Edna bought a house just down the street from Leonce’s and moved out. She told people that she did not want to live in her house where it was filled of her husband’s things. It was just too big for her since she was all alone. Megan P. Kaplon states, “ The pigeon house, as she calls it, is a place far away from any reminders of her

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