Kate Chopins The Awakening †In Defense of Edna Pontellier :: Chopin Awakening Essays

The Awakening – In Defense of Edna    Does everyone have the right to happiness?   It is stated in the Constitution that we as Americans have the right to life, liberty, and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.  Ã‚   In the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin the main Character Edna has a comfortable life.   A sweet loving husband, cute children, enormous amounts of money and an extremely large house.   Yet with all of this Edna is not fulfilled. Edna never took time to examine her life to see what she wanted out of it.   After marriage, Edna wanted the freedom to explore her mind, find herself and find what this person liked.   In the following I will defend the actions Edna took to find her happiness as irrational as they may seem.    This story took place in the late 1800's when women's liberation was never heard of.   In this era women were supposed to find happiness in serving their husbands and taking care of the children.   There were no other options within the restrictive boundaries of marriage, and divorce was never an alternative. Women's lives were austere and self enrichment or self gratification were often times cast aside relative to the more mundane tasks of daily life.   Most women accepted this but Edna did not.   She figured that life was more than constantly doing for someone else.   She wanted time for herself in order to figure out who she was.   Some may see this as selfish but everyone is entitled to â€Å"me† time and space.   Although I admit she did not go about it in the best way at times; Edna still was in going in the right direction.    Edna's marriage to Leonce Pontellier was to spite her father the Colonel because Leonce was of a different religious faith.   Also, Leonce was unceasingly devoted to Edna which was something that had never occurred in any other relationship. Edna, who had not experienced many male relationships before this was naive when it came to men.   This naivetà © affected her in such a way that she neither knew love and it's limitations nor the experience it took to make it through a relationship.   This showed Edna's immaturity which was a big issue in this story. This shown as the woman inside who had been asleep all those years. Her relationship with Leonce was what she sought to find happiness in.    After six years of marriage to Leonce,   Edna felt an ever-growing void in her life.   She gave up all of her responsibilities such as taking care of her children when they were sick and she never spent time playing with them.