REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN LITERATURE: MAIN CHARACTER IN THE AWAKENING, BY KATE CHOPIN

This paper aims at analyz the female emancipation of the main character Edna Pontellier, in the novel The Awakening (1989), by North-American writer Kate Chopin. When main character by realizing herself as a subject, change her characteristics and behavior concerning the model of woman in the nineteenth century, historically and culturally conditioned by a patriarchal society. The research showed that Kate Chopin presents the female condition in the nineteenth century and, by creating her heroine, Edna Pontellier, Chopin engenders in it her own thoughts as a writer and woman ahead of her time.