Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening is set in the late 19th century on the Grand Isle. The novel centers on Edna Pontellier, a woman who is becoming sexually aware of herself and trying to gain her independence. Throughout the novel, she tries to meet her views on motherhood and femininity starting from Southern social attitudes towards women; women were nothing more than property. In the novel, Edna attempts to seek her individuality away from the constraints of society, but finds her journey hindered by her inability to transcend society; this outlined by his search for himself, his choices and its consequences. In The Awakening, Edna experiences a “. . . the spiritual and physical awakening [which] heralds his search for himself” (“Themes”); she tries to free herself from society's feminine ideals by being herself and searching for the self she has since suppressed. In search of that self, Edna "first tests her assertive self by refusing to have sexual relations with her husband" ("Themes") and, according to Kate Chopin, practices openly defying his commands (52). His assertiveness gives...