Kate Chopin, in The Awakening, asks an important question: can freedom exist in a society that upholds and sustains confinement through the means of reputation, decency, and others social factors? The various characters in the novel constitute three levels of awareness of freedom: ignorance, enlightenment and research. Kate Chopin uses these types of awareness to demonstrate that true freedom can never be achieved. Most of the characters in The Awakening are completely unaware of the freedom that Kate Chopin writes about. They are happy with their life and are afraid of the truth. Mrs. Ratignolle lives her life for her family, and because she feels that her only purpose in life is to raise her children, she is unable to perceive herself as an individual. She has no desire to do anything for herself, in fact, she is frightened by the idea. Mrs. Ratignolle constantly tries to persuade Edna to abandon her hopes of a relationship with Robert and to "think of the children" (104). Interestingly, Mrs. Ratignolle does not intend to think about what would happen to the children's fragile psychological state if Edna left them for Robert; in contrast, Mrs. Ratignolle refers to what would happen to children's place in society if Edna followed her heart. Mr. Pontellier, Edna's husband, gives his wife more and more freedom over time, however, he does so to save his marriage rather than out of concern for his wife. Mr. Pontellier is only afraid of the social backlash that might occur and the hit his reputation would take if his marriage failed. At one point, the couple even stops sleeping together. When they first return to New Orleans, their marriage is described: "Mr. Pontellier h...... middle of paper ...... realizes the futility of trying to create freedom for herself when Robert leaves. Society will not allow complete freedom, so Edna ends her life, a symbol of the desperation and futility of attempting to acquire a pure state of independence and solitude. Kate Chopin uses the characters of The Awakening to represent people's understanding of freedom, which in turn shows that freedom in its truest form is impossible to achieve as long as one has to deal with the rules of society ignorance of freedom and finds it selfish or childish. Some human beings are able to find a balance between forces, while others are unable to deal with the pain of not being able to spread their wings and fly Kate Chopin's opinions may be cynical, but they are universally true. Works Cited Chopin, The Awakening New York: WW Norton & Company, 1994