The Awakening

I've read this book before, but I feel now that I understand it more fully, or at least that it is more relevant to my own life. I feel like, in some ways, society still hasn't decided if they are comfortable having women in all the traditional roles given to men. Edna struggles with the concept herself. She wants to be carefree like her husband, and she has no desire to care for her children except when she must. She isn't really the mothering type. She tends to scold the house-keeper for not taking care of them, rather than taking care of them herself, and in the novel, they are often with Adele or not talked about at all. It is obvious that she loves them, but she says that she doesn't want to give her entire self to them. Edna is realizing that she is a human being, and she can have her own thoughts and desires that are not given to her by her husband; for example, she ignores his wishes and outright says that she will not listen to him when she is in the hammock, though it doesn't seem like she is very comfortable. She makes the choice to defy him simply on principle. He is confused by this and stands by her to smoke, perhaps in protest of her defiance. He wants to still watch over her so that she does not 'win.' I find their relationship to be very interesting; he clearly believes that she should be watching over the children and doing the things other creole wives do, but he also seems to back down from her a lot. He didn't force her to come inside, he was irritated, but many other husbands would have yelled or used force. He also isn't concerned with the amount of time his wife spends with another man, or that she didn't come home after the church service. It is strange to see this behavior in him, and having read the book before, I don't remember how it changes, but I remember that it does change a bit, so I am excited to find out how.