Kate Chopin's The Awakening was written during a time when husbands were viewed as the protector and the provider of the family and wives were viewed as "mother-women" and housewives. Women were expected to conform to the role that society depicted for them rather than to behave as persons with individual needs and desires. Edna Pontellier, the protagonist of Chopin's The Awakening seeks to defy convention by transforming from the wife and mother society expects her to be to a self-sufficient woman that follows her own ambitions and desires.
In the beginning of the novel, Edna is a mother and a wife who is trying to conform to the expectations of society. Although she is discontent with her life she continues to behave as the Creole society would want her to behave. Her husband treats her as "a valuable piece of personal property" (2). He expects her main focus to be on him and the children. It is not until chapter three of the novel that Edna realizes the she is oppressed. Edna understands that she will never truly be content playing the sole role of mother and wife. Even though she loved and cared for her family, she knows that there is more to life than raising children and being a good wife.
In chapter six, Edna is awakened as to the true circumstances of her life. It is at the beach that she is beginning to realize that she is an autonomous individual and that what she does affects the people around her. At the same time, she is subject to the constraints of society and the expectations of other people. During this period, women led very sheltered lives that were focused on the family and home and not one individual hopes and desires. The beach and the ocean are major symbols used throughout the novel that represent every thing Edna wants: romance, sexual desire, indolence, freedom, independence, and rebirth. Her marriage to her husband was an accident that was based on rebellion instead of love (18).
