Edna’s Struggles against Patriarchal Social Discrimination in The Awakening: A Feminist Perspective

Abstract

This study investigates the patriarchal practices imposed on Edna, the protagonist in the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin, and focuses on her fight to survive in society with her own freedom and individual identity. By using the lens of feminism, this research scrutinizes the novel critically and traces the complexities faced by Edna in the male-dominated society, such as harassment, subjugation, persecution, conflict, domestic violence, and gender discrimination. It also identifies the conflicts between her behavior and the social norms, and shows how she struggles to come out from the male-dominated society. It follows textual analysis as a qualitative methodology and collects the primary data from the text. Besides, some secondary data are used to support the argument as well. The findings reveal that the protagonist does not tolerate the social ideas and so rebels against the society and its conventional norms to build up her own identity. Her struggles, confidence, and inner strength help her bring about a change. To establish herself as an individual being in society, she rents a room, earns her livelihood through her own paintings, and comes out from the so-called social identity of housewife and mother.