The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Uploaded by snwboarder on Oct 27, 2011
This essay examines the three main female characters in Kate Chopin’s famous novel.
Women of The Awakening
I Introduction
The Awakening is the work for which Kate Chopin is best remembered. It is also the one that cost her her career. Although Chopin was a prolific writer and had published many short stories of psychological complexity that explored the status of women in Victorian culture, her frank approach to sexuality and infidelity was so shocking that contemporary critics savaged the novel. It seems to me to be the logical extension of her previous writings; nevertheless, she crossed the “boundaries.” She stopped writing soon after the failure of The Awakening, robbing us of a great literary talent.
This paper compares the three main female characters of the novel: Edna Pontellier, Adele Ratignolle, and Mademoiselle Reisz with emphasis on their character, background, and behavior in the Creole culture.
II Brief Plot Summary
It’s possible to sum up the plot of the novel in one sentence: a young woman trapped in a stifling marriage has an affair with a man she doesn’t love; declares her love to the man she does care for only to have him run from her, and drowns herself. Although this is exactly what happens, this facetious bare-bones outline doesn’t begin to do justice to the book, which is lyrical, beautiful and deeply moving. Chopin has written a novel of great psychological insight, an exploration of the feelings and dreams of women, and how the thwarting of desire leads, in this case, to tragedy. Another woman might have learned to live with the kind of well meant but smothering male domination represented in the book by Mr. Pontellier, but Edna can no longer make the compromise. When she realizes that the man she really loves is also bound by convention, her life ceases to have meaning, and she ends it.
I’d also like to mention Chopin’s descriptive power. She paints the vivid life of New Orleans so beautifully that we can easily see it before our eyes. Chopin was “influenced” by Creole culture, and her affinity for it colors the whole book. (Lee, PG). The party before Edna leaves for the “pigeon-house,” and the summer places on Grand Isle stand out in particular. But perhaps the most potent symbol of all is the Gulf: mysterious, beautiful, soothing, empowering, and freeing. When...