In the 19th century, dictatorial patriarchy forced women to conform to the ideal image of a Victorian woman by imposing social constraints on them. Unfortunately, women have blindly submitted to the restrictive terms and accepted the role of obedient heterosexual housewife and mother due to years of psychological manipulation. The mental enslavement of women leads to the promotion of female oppression by psychologically conditioned matrons. If a woman deviated from the path set for her from birth, she would face extreme condemnation from members of her own sex and would be called a social leper. This dilemma is examined in Kate Chopin's feminist novel, The Awakening, which describes the protagonist's internal struggle between adapting to Victorian culture and accepting her homosexuality. In Creole society, women were unaware of their own subjugation due to years of tyrannical brainwashing by the opposite sex. . Victorian men dictated to women that their “decree of destiny” (62) was to marry a hopeful, financially secure aristocrat who would treat her as a priceless object rather than a human being. Mr. Pontellier, the best husband in the world, considered Edna a “personal property” and expected her to always be at his disposal, fully cared for, attractive (44). In order for this to happen, little girls are taught at an early age to constantly beautify themselves and “fashion their grace” (58) in order to gain a husband who values her artificially altered face and body rather than her mind and spirit . The seeds of oppression are so deeply rooted in Victorian culture that girls blindly ignore their own "exceptional intellectual gifts" (61) and talents because essentially having a mind and a voice is unflattering to men who seek... means of paper ... and making great strides in legislation, their progress towards tolerance has been extremely slow and full of setbacks. Even if Edna Pontellier has the chance to come out in the twenty-first century, that won't stop her from becoming another Jadin Bell or Jamey Rodemeyer, because all three sincerely believe that the last resort is curing homosexuality means committing suicide to avoid live in sin and against society. This shows that one hundred and more years since Kate Chopin examined the dilemma of homosexuality in culture in her novel, The Awakening, the homosexual situation continues to occur and socio-religious attitudes towards them have not changed significantly since the Victorian era. In the case of Edna and many other people who resonate with her, things don't get better, they actually get worse.
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