In Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, the drastic change in character and morals that Edna Pontellier goes through is dramatized by the contrast and connections made between her and her best friend Adele Ratignolle. While Edna evolves into a character that becomes more engrossed with freedom of spirit and sexual liberty, Madame Ratignolle remains a symbol of chastity and a paragon of 19th century womanhood. In addition, Edna's involuntary existence in a morally chaste Creole society further exacerbates the contrast between her and Madame Ratignolle.
             Similarly to the protagonist of her novel, Chopin lived in New Orleans in a Creole society after marrying. This setting was what first formed her initial impressions of Creole society as a wife and a young mother. (Oxford Companion to Women's writing in the US – 188) Although a celebrated American writer, Chopin was very much under French influence. This was evident in the Creole societies which frequent her stories (TCLC, vol.5 - 147). It was more than plot that Chopin tried to capture with the characters in the Creole communities, it was the ambiance. The communities which Chopin wrote about were ones in which respectable women took wine with dinner and brandy after it, smoked cigarettes, played "Chopin" sonatas and told risqué stories (148) It is this heavy emphasis on place that has won acclaim for her novels, especially The Awakening, in which she creates an ever-present southern atmosphere. Other than her use of local color, critics praise her objective treatment of sexuality and feminine psychology in The Awakening (141). In a time where the family unit was often seen as the be all and end all of a woman's existence, The Awakening took bold steps to partially reject the family as the automatic equivalent of feminine self-fulfillment.
             The setting of Creole life in Grand Isle is rich with exotic beauty. This sets the sta...