Although The Awakening by Kate Chopin and The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton have different narrative methods, both novels are demonstrating the restraints and limited options that women had at the turn of the 20th Century. Kate Chopin uses the means of the tragedy to tell us the story of Edna Pontellier, a woman unsatisfied and unhappy in her marriage whereas Edith Wharton uses a satirical tone to criticize the society Lily Bart lives in where a single woman's main objective should be to marry well if not wealthy herself. Both novels end with the suicide of these main characters, which is a blatant statement of the impossible situation women found themselves in during this time. For the majority of women marriage was the only, and definitely the most accepted way, of earning a living. Women had the respected roles of being wifes and mothers, and although there were women who made a life for themselves the possibilites were limited and both novels use minor characters to demonstrate the "eccentric" flavour given to the single women of that time. My aim is to show how similar these novels are, bringing out these factors on both novels, not concentrating on the plot of the stories themselves, but rather to focus on the situation these women found themselves in.
             Edna Pontellier is a Protestant who married a Catholic. She had to convince her father to let her marry into a Catholic family. The religious differences are furthermore a reminder how different Edna is from her husband. She has been married for some time when she starts feeling depressed and not satisfied with her life. The narrator tells us of Edna's
             ...indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, [and] filled her whole being with a vague anguish. It was like a shadow, like a mist passing across her soul's summer day. It was strange and unfamiliar; it was a mood. She did not sit there inwardly upbraiding he...