Late 19th Century Creole Society as it pertains to: Kate Chopin's The Awakening During the 1890’s, New Orleans was an interesting place to be. Characterized by strict social codes, both spoken and unspoken, a prosperous lifestyle was the reward for following these strict laws of the society. This conformity made for a strenuous situation for Edna Pontellier, the protagonist of Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening. It is of utmost necessity that Chopin places Edna in this unique setting, both because of the characters who inhabit it and the situations that are created and advanced in this late 1800’s so