The Awakening Of Women

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which suppress her sexuality, individuality and rights.
Choked by the cloistering, moralistic garb of the Victorian era, yet willing to give up everything--even her own life--for the freedom of unencumbered individuality, Edna Pontellier epitomizes the consummate New Woman of the late nineteenth century. She embodies the social ideals for which women of that era were striving, and are still striving for today. She is individualistic--a maverick. She is passionate. She is courageous and intrepid. She is the definitive persona which thousands of women during the late nineteenth century exalted as a role model.
Leonce Pontellier shows the feelings of Victorian society toward women. He treats Edna as a possession rather than a person, and views her awakening as a burden and embarrassment. Robert Lebrun continues to illustrate the constricting Victorian society when he leaves Edna instead of being with her because she is married and cannot start over with him. Madame Adele ...

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