aditional values that Kate Chopin, in The Awakening, had questioned." That is, late nineteenth century literature was only recognized in a positive light if it offered a moral lesson with which the readers could identify. Reviewers stressed these moralistic criteria by especially noting the distasteful theme of The Awakening and its negative impact on youth. For instance, the May 21, 1899 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch printed a review of The Awakening calling it "too strong drink for moral babes." ." and that it "should be labeled 'poison'" (Toth 355).
             The reviewers were so adamant in their comments because the main character of The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, represents the plight of most women at this time. Her husband, Leonce Pontellier, is a businessman who loves his wife and their two children in his own way. He is a serious, but not cruel or abusive individual; he just carries the same expectations of most men in the society of the late 1800s. Both men and women have their own separate positions to partake. He understands his role is to take care of his family and her role is to perform her obligations as a wife and mother. Typical of the time, the husband and wife do not get married out of an undying, romantic love. Rather, it is a social convenience, an arrangement. They also do communicate well, only about the day-to-day events, trivial business matters and the children.
             At first Edna accepts her role and plays her part. She does not realize her inner turmoil. Part of her desires to be unchained to convention, and she is confused at what is
             happening within as her tears flow unexpectedly: "She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life. They seemed never before to have weighed much against the abundance of her husband's kindness and a uniform devotion which had come to be tacit and self-understood."
             Edna begins her true awake...