Feminism in Kate Chopin's The Awakening

Kate Chopin bravely exposed an attitude of feminism to an unprepared society in her novel The Awakening. Her brilliant work of fiction was not recognized at the time because feminism had not yet become popular. Eble claimed that Chopin's book was considered to be "Too strong a drink for moral babes and should labeled 'poison'" (75). Chopin defied societal assumptions of her time period and wrote the novel, The Awakening, using attitudes of characters in regard to gender, changes in the main character, imagery and Edna's suicide to illustrate her feminist position.

Society during Chopin's time period believed women to be a weak, dependent gender whose position lay nothing above mothering and housework. In The Awakening, Chopin relays the basic attitudes of society toward women mainly through her characters Leonce, Edna, Madame Ratignolle, and Madame Reisz. She uses Leonce and Madame Ratignolle to portray examples of what was considered acceptable in society. However, Chopin includes the contrasting characters of Edna and Madame Reisz in an effort to express urges and desires disguised by the female gender.