The Awakening: An Analysis In Kate Chopin's The Awakening the central character of the novel is a "new woman," Edna Pontellier, who discovers that her marriage to a New Orleans Creole has prevented her emotional development and is responsible for keeping her in a state of ongoing innocence and childhood. The problem is that society and the family have institutionalized the roles of women and the lives that women can expect to lead giving up ”…female self-ownership….”(Stange 204). Edna has been forced by society to live only through her husband and her children, without any focus on her own needs and interests and without concern for her own individuality. [ The novel has careful