The story "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin represents the self-discovery of Edna Pontellier. At that time in history, women did just what they were expected to do. They were expected to be good wives and good mothers. Edna didn't fit this mold. The constant pressure she feels causes her search for her identity, her freedom, and her independence. However, this search leads to her tragic isolation from the world. Even only her hope, Robert, who could fulfill Edna's happiness and loneliness, left her alone. She noticed there is no place she can fit in but the ocean which in this story represents the freedom and the independence. And she commits suicide by throwing herself to the ocean. We can see the steps of her "awakening" through the story and how this awakening changed her.
Edna is introduced as a married woman who seems vaguely satisfied with her life. However, she cannot find true happiness. Her dread of being incarcerated in the world begins with her realizing her unhappiness in her marriage. In chapter III, Chopin represents Edna's displeasure in her marriage. When her husband, Leonce, returned from the gambling club, he complained about their son Raoul's fever and told Edna to look after him. But she was sure that Raoul had no fever. And "he reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the child (Chopin, 5)." She cried a little but could not tell why she was crying. She claimed that it was nothing to do with husband's scolding. However, the continuous emotional mistreatment by Leonce foreshadows the Edna's displeasure and feeling of coercion in her marriage. In page thirteen, Edna "was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her." These passages show that she is approaching her "awakening" by realizing that she can play roles other than wife and mother.
In chapter X, Edna finally entered to the sea and swim for the first time.
