Is personal freedom more important than one's moral obligations to one`s family and society? Kate Chopin's The Awakening, reveals the story of Edna Pontellier's struggle against her own expectations to seek personal freedom. Edna abandons the traditional role of wife and mother to develop her artistic creativity and search for new relationships that will help her find her true self. In Edna's search for a genuine identity, she explorers art and social relationships, but never discovers the aspect of herself that is truly fulfilling. In The Awakening, Edna uses artistic creativity and new relationships in an attempt to find personal freedom.

Edna develops her artistic talent in hope of finding her identity. She wants to paint while the artistic impulse is flowing through her body: "`I feel like painting,' answered Edna. `Perhaps I shan't always feel like it'" (108). Edna knows that her artistic creativity will not...