Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening simply summarized is a women's novel about empowering women in the 19th century. The story opens as Edna Pontellier is vacationing with her husband, Leonce, and their children at the cottages of Madame Lebrum. Leonce is constantly away, due to business, and is continuously preoccupied with work. This leads to Edna spending most of her time with her friend, Adele Ratignolle, whose friendship started the awakening process in Edna. This …showed first 75 words of 456 total…

…showed last 75 words of 456 total…to find a way out. She could not take all the social and psychological rules laid upon herself. She is trapped in an unwanted mother figure and in a society which consisted of something she is not; Creoles. Most importantly though, she is trapped inside of her self; Edna is always struggling to discover what she is and in what world she belongs until the very end. To surmise the story she inexplicably commits suicide.