"Awakening" Is Not "Awaken":The Interpretations of "Awakenings" in The Awakening

Kate Chopin's 1899 The Awakening is an novel which describes Edna Pontellier's several awakenings,and what distinguishes Edna as a New Woman is her insistence upon development and realization of her self.However,The Awakening is a novel of awakening process but not program.There are lots of confinements on Edna's awakenings,thus eventually,these awakenings are not awaken at all.Edna awakens to the horrible knowledge that she can never,because she is female,be her own person.She realizes that her self-realization includes painful awareness of the limitations of the self.As a New Women writer,a woman far ahead of her time,Kate Chopin composed The Awakening at the wrong time: when neither reviewers nor Kate Chopin herself were ready for the questions she asked.