The Awakening of Kate ChopinThe Awakening of Kate Chopin should be seen as a representation of the discontent that comes from self-gratification rather than the glorification of dabbling in one's fantasies. Chopin describes the central idea of ​​someone trying to satisfy their personal needs and desires and, in the process, neglecting to notice how their actions affect others. The protagonist, Edna, cannot find peace or happiness in the accepted daily life that a woman of her era and social status should have. Fulfilling her wishes could essentially cause social ostracism for her, her husband, and her children, but she cannot find rest living the typical Victorian social life. The final decision of her “awakening” to her desires, her final suicide, is not an honorable position that women should aspire to as a romantic ideal because her desires were hopeless in her situation. Because of Edna's pursuit of personal satisfaction, she misses out on the joys that everyday life has to offer. In theory, Edna's need to satisfy her personal desires is the cause of her death. Edna chooses to associate with and fall in love with Robert. In doing so, Edna begins to distance herself further and further from her family and sees their needs less clearly. Bonnie St. Andrews sees Edna's actions as “one woman's rebellion against convention” (28). Essentially, her desires turn into a greed that prevents her from seeing anyone but herself. The first step in understanding why Edna ended her life so desperately is to identify when her selfish desires begin to take root in her mind. Dating Robert and essentially being wooed, Edna becomes disillusioned with her current circumstances (her role in... half of the paper... c Fiction." Southern Literary Journal 33.2 (Spring 2001): 9 pp. Online. Internet. 1 November 2001. Rankin, Elizabeth “A Reader Response Approach.” 155. Ryan, Steven T. “Depression and The Awakening.” Mississippi Quarterly 51.2 (Spring 1998): 21 pp. Online Internet, 29 November 2001. Simpson, JA, et al. Oxford English Dictionary: Clarendon, 1989.St. Andrews, Bonnie Forbidden Fruit: 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 Chopin: Harold Bloom, Pennsylvania: Chelsea House Publishing, 1999. 38-41.