Chopin's society in The Awakening consists of well-to-do Creoles who feel themselves separate from Anglo-Americans. Members of a close-knit community, these Creoles generally maintained strict social boundaries that would bend little for outsiders. Writes Chopin, "Mrs. Pontellier, though she had married a Creole, was not thoroughly at home in the society of Creoles.... They all knew each other, and felt like one large family, among whom existed the most amicable relations" (Chopin, The Awakening, p. 11).
Creole gentlemen ruled their households and expected from their wives the utmost devotion. In return, the husbands provided a generous environment. Although society deemed it acceptable for Creole men to engage in extramarital affairs, they always took meals and attended social engagements with their wives. A contemporary of Chopin's states that "Creole women, as a rule, are good housekeepers, are economical and industrious. When one pauses to think that these women were reared as princesses, with slaves at their command, one realizes that noble blood has made noble women" (Shaffter in Chopin, p.120). The Creole wife usually presided over a large family, and households of ten children were not uncommon during the 1800s.
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