Kate Chopin’s The Awakening does a great job at showing the oppression of women in society. The main character, Edna, struggles internally with her role as a mother and a wife. This quote stuck out to me: “at a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life–that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions” (Chopin 35). Edna’s tells the audience in a straightforward manner that she feels like she has to perform for the people around her. She has her own thoughts about the life she’s living and she feels like she has no choice but to conform to what society wants. This is further pursued when she thinks about her children and the attachment she has with them: “their absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admit this, even to herself. It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her” (Chopin, 48). Edna likes her children, but she also didn’t have a choice in the matter. She just sees them as a responsibility that she has to deal with, similar to how she views her husband. This reminded me of this woman on TikTok who has a long and ongoing list of reasons why women should not have children. After a new video of a child doing something horrendous or after learning something new about the birth process and how that impacts a women’s health, she adds a new item to the list. If Edna had more of a choice in having children, she would find the list interesting because it’s basically a pros and cons list. Since she views having children a duty or responsibility, she would find this list useful in determining whether or not she would want children.
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