As humans it is our nature to make decisions based on what might be best for ourselves in the moment, but we don't think about the repercussions this might cause in the future. These decisions can have a positive and negative effect on one's life. Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" shows the general population how to make decisions without thinking rationally. Edna Pontellier made decisions that were both beneficial and harmful to herself and her family. She began to feel an emotion that she had never been able to acquire and it also led her to become physically trapped in a situation that puts her in a struggle between her dignity and her image in society. Edna Pontellier comes home to an intimate relationship for someone other than her husband, which is what puts her in a harmful but beneficial situation. Before Edna Pontellier “she was not a woman given to confidences, a characteristic hitherto contrary to her nature” (Chopin 550). Since she lacked self-confidence beforehand, the change was both beneficial and obvious to those around her. He has always lived a “double life: the external existence that conforms, the internal life that questions” (Chopin 550). You may look at her and think everything is fine, but inside she wonders what might happen if she does the things she wants and not what society expects. She begins to think for herself what made the intimate relationship more beneficial for her but at the same time harmful for her family. “But he doesn't behave well. She's strange, she's not like herself. I can't quite understand it” (Chopin 589). At this point, the reader becomes more concerned about the decisions she is making because it makes her happy but makes her husband wonder what caused this dramatic change. At this... in the middle of the sheet... and death takes her” (Toth). Edna Pontellier began to deal with emotions that were simply too overwhelming for her; received a letter from Robert stating “I love you. Goodbye, for I love you” (Chopin 625). Losing someone you love and feeling like you're worthless can lead you to do the unthinkable. She may have thought about the children and her husband, but “they didn't need to think that they could possess her, body and soul.” (Chopin 627). Kate Chopin's “The Awakening” is the story of a woman trying to find her true sense of self, but these decisions force her to face consequences that can change her life in ways she could never have imagined. History creates decisions that can be beneficial but at the same time harmful to oneself and family. Readers can relate to Edna by understanding that one can act according to the way society wants or sees them.