r Edna Pontellier. Her breaking away from the conventions of literary domesticity is shown through Edna breaking away from the conventional feminine roles of wife and mother (Showalter 170). Kate Chopin shows boldness by taking the main characters and having them completely change their views on life. Edna is a young woman who discovers that her pampered married life is not what she wants. So she rebels to find fulfillment for her psychological, social, and sexual drives. Edna is married to Leonce Pontellier. Leonce is Edna's older husband who expects his wife to obey the region's social conventions. He sees Edna as a "piece of personal property" (Chopin The Awakening 2).Chopin tells in the novel that Edna is "fond of her husband," with " no trace of passion or excessive and fictitious warmth" (18). Edna married Leonce primarily to secure a fatherly protector who would not make too many domestic, emotional, and sexual demands on her. Edna also has no motherly attachment to her children. "She was fond of her children in and uneven, impulsive way." When her children were away, "she did not miss them except with an occasional intense longing" (18). These feelings show that Edna was not the normal "mother-woman" of that time.The largest and most criticized step Chopin takes is in The Awakening. Edna is having many mixed feelings about herself and her sexuality. In the novel, Chopin allows Edna to have an affair. This affair is not out of love but out of the need for passion in Edna's life. When Edna's one true love leaves, this allows Edna to face her changing feelings. Her true love, Robert, returns but they both realize it is not ment to be and he leaves again. He explains his action by saying, "I love you. Good-by, because I love you," (112). Much shock felt by the readers toward The Awakening and other stories by Chopin was the boldness she took in rejecting the conventions of other women's writing. In The Awakeni...
