AWAKENING
The Awakening Edna Pontellier’s so-called “awakening” is her realization that she is a disposable object in her environment, the patriarchal Creole society of the 19th century. She slowly recognizes in The Awakening that she has never been honest with herself about her true feelings and desires, and grows to understand that a woman in her lifetime will never be seen as an independent person capable of making decisions independently. However, her “awakening” is false; though she makes these realizations, she can not in the end handle her new vision of independent life, and continually places herself in the realms of male dominance by the situations she creates. ... The reader at this point has a firm grasp of all that Edna wished to leave behind during the stages of her “awakening. ... Edna does bring herself to an “awakening” which opens her eyes momentarily to her own desires and tastes. ... Her “awakening” in the end proves to be false.