He tries to make her happy by giving her material things, and listening to the experts, like the doctor, who give him instructions as to how to make his wife feel content, but no one can give him good answers. Also, the world around him is filled with women like Adele Ratignolle, who seem to find the type of life Leonce gives Edna to be satisfactory. I wanted to write a dramatic monologue telling the story of Leonce and Edna's marriage in the Awakening from Leonce's perspective. This does not mean that I believe that Edna was wrong to leave her husband when she was unhappy with her life, but that in a bad marriage, there is often no clear wrong and...

In the Creole society of the Awakening, Kate Chopin seems to suggest that real and meaningful understanding between men and women is impossible. Edna does not find happiness with any of the men she knows in the novel. This also suggests it is not Leonce alone who is to blame for the marriage's failure. Both Edna and Leonce suffer in different ways because of the miscommunication and misunderstanding between men and women in the novel. Leonce suffers confusion and social embarrassment, and social approval is very important to him, and Edna suffers emotionally as well as loses her social position.