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In the novella, “The Awakening”, there are two different types of women. These women are analyzed further into two groups. The main character, which is a 28-year-old woman, is trying to identify herself with one of these groups. The first group is the true woman; this is the group Edna does not want to be a member of. Once Edna embarks upon her quest for independence and self-fulfillment, she finds herself at odds with the expectations and conventions of society, which requires a married woman to subvert her own needs to those of her husband and children. Yet, she continues on because she can’t accept anything less than finding her own happiness. For like the parrot, Edna is also trapped, not within a metal cage, but by the standards and traditions of society (Chpt. 1). The other group is considered to be the new women. This group causes many conflicts in this story.
A true woman finds all her life long joy in caring for others, especially her children and husband. She neither had nor wants freewill. She doesn’t act on her talents or wants, which may stray her away from the matter at hand. Her life is very routine. She is not outspoken and has no problem standing in the shadow of her family. She stays in her place or role her entire life. “A woman's place was in the home.“ Woman's role was to be busy at those morally uplifting tasks aimed at maintaining and fulfilling her piety and purity. It was assumed that women were different


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from men, both physically and mentally inferior. “The true woman was easily noticed. She is known as the mother-woman. She often, flutters about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threaten their precious brood. They were women who worshipped their husbands and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels.” (Chpt. IV) There aren’t that many of this type of woman around in...