The Awakening of Kate Chopin The Awakening of Kate Chopin should be seen as a description of the discontent that comes from self-satisfaction rather than from the glorification of the pleasure of one's fantasies. Chopin describes the central idea of ​​a person who seeks to satisfy their personal needs and desires and, in doing so, neglects to notice how their actions affect others. The protagonist, Edna, cannot find the peace or happiness in the accepted everyday life that a woman of her time and social status should have. Fulfilling her desires could essentially cause social ostracism for her, her husband, and her children, but she is unable to find rest in living the typical Victorian social life. The final resolution of her "awakening" to her desires, her ultimate suicide, is not an honorable position toward which women should strive as a romantic ideal because her desires were hopeless in her situation. Because of Edna's striving for personal satisfaction, she loses the joys that everyday life has to offer. Theoretically, Edna's need to fulfill her personal desires is the cause of her disappearance. Edna chooses to partner with and be in love with Robert. In doing so, Edna begins to distance herself more and more from her family and sees their needs less and less clearly. Bonnie St. Andrews views Edna's actions as "a woman's rebellion against convention" (28). Essentially, her desires turn into a greed that prevents her from seeing anyone other than herself. The first step in understanding why Edna ended her life in such a desperate manner is to identify the moment when her selfish desires begin to take root in her mind. By associating with Robert and essentially being courted by him, Edna becomes disillusioned with her current situation (her role in ...... middle of paper ......c Fiction." Southern Literary Journal 33.2 (Spring 2001): 9 pp. Online November 1, 2001. Rankin, Elizabeth. “A Reader-Response Approach” Approaches to Teaching Chopin’s The Awakening New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1988. Ryan, Steven T. “Depression and The Awakening.” Mississippi Quarterly 51.2 (Spring 1998): 21 pages, November 29, 2001. Simpson, JA, et al.: Clarendon, 1989. St. Andrews, Bonnie. on the relationship between women and knowledge in Doris Lessing, Selma Lagerlof, Kate Chopin and Margaret Atwood, NY: Whitston, 1986.Woolf, Cyntia Griffin and Eros: The Awakening of Kate Chopin. : Bloom's Notes Ed. Harold Bloom, PA: Chelsea House Publishing., 1999. 38-41.