Sexual Liberation for Women in the Awakening

Abstract

To present a female iconoclastic character as a heroine of a novel was really a challenging endeavor for a female writer of 19 th century. Kate Chopin, breaking all the restrictions and taboos of the contemporary society, dares to construct a character of Edna Pontellier, who thoroughly refuses to play a mere role of a mother-woman. Edna surpasses all the limitation, imposed over women by the dominating patriarchal society. She refused to be a puppet of her husband. She denies of being a mere property which her husband possesses. Edna dismantles the male-made ethics of motherhood, womanhood or sexuality very boldly. Adamant and firm on her own stand, Edna chooses complete sexual liberation in her life. She takes sexual satisfaction not as a physical intercourse between a husband and wife but as a blend of physical and mental intercourse where sex is not taken as a duty but as a crucial aspect of life.