Why do you suppose critics were outraged at this novel in 1899?Saying it committed "unutterable crimes against polite society" and should be...

Chopin's The Awakening dared to
suggest that women should be allowed the same sexual freedom that men have been allowed
to have for, well, throughout history.  Enough said?

The
novel features a woman who refuses to fulfill societal expectations for women.  In other
words, she refuses to accept that being "barefoot and pregnant," as is said, is the only
role a woman should be allowed to fulfill. 

The novel
features a woman who has a brain and acknowledges her sexual desires, and attempts to
act on them.  When the novel was published, Freud had already established the importance
of sex in human existence.  Though Freud's ideas have been heavily refined since, and
though he, of course, went too far, the preeminence of sex in human motivation is a
given.  But these ideas were certainly not applied to women in Chopin's day.  The novel
dares to question America's puritanical ideas concerning
sex. 

Why this novel was condemned, labeled "poison," etc.,
is a no-brainer.  It would have been a surprise if it weren't.