The Awakening By Kate Chopin

Commonly explored throughout her works, the idea of marriage inhibiting a woman’s freedom is the driving force behind Kate Chopin’s contextual objections to propriety. In particular, The Awakening and “The Story of an Hour” explore the lives of women seeking marital liberation and individuality. Mrs. Chopin, who was raised in a matriarchal household, expresses her opposition to the nineteenth century patriarchal society while using her personal experiences to exemplify her feminist views.

Sexual transgression and sexual exploration is one of the most highly talked about topics in today’s society. The path to sexual liberation within society begins with experimentation and exploration, followed by personal acceptance, and finally, although not always, societal acceptance. Although we have come a long way on the path of acceptance of different sexual transgressions, the stories of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Tennessee Williams’ “Vieux Carre,” and Lyle Saxon’s “The Centaur Plays Croquet” show that this type of acceptance has not always been the case. Each story plays an integral role when looking at the steps on the path to societal acceptance. Chopin 's story dives deep into the area of experimentation and exploration, whereas Saxon 's story looks more at the areas of personal acceptance, and Williams ' story lies more along the area of societal acceptance, and whether or not acceptance is always the end result.

Edna’s awakening was the beginning to her suicide. As Edna realized her capacity to be honest with herself, the old Edna began to die. Edna slowly started to realize she did not want to be like other women, whom “idolized their children, worshiped their

The Awakening by Kate Chopin introduces the reader to the life of Edna Pontellier, a woman with an independent nature searching for her true identity in a patriarchal society that expects women to be nothing more than devoted wives and nurturing mothers.

Throughout “The Awakening”, Edna is immersed in a constant clash with society over the significance of the difference between her life and her self. To Edna, the question of whether or not she would die for her children is somewhat simple. Edna attempts to explain this concept to her good friend, Adele Ratignolle, but to no avail, “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself” (Chopin 62). Not only does Edna consider her life unessential, she categorizes it as equal with material objects such as money. The idea of self, on the other hand, lies on a completely different level in Edna’s mind. The most important goal to Edna in her life is the journey to discover her true character. The idea that her inner self is more essential than life or even her children causes Edna to stray farther from the social constraints of the typical domestic woman. Kathleen M. Streater weighs in on Edna’s situation and placement in

In the novel, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, we see how much of an importance the men in Edna’s life serve as a purpose to her awakening. Chopin is known to write stories about women who are unsatisfied with their lives while living in a life that is dominated by men. Other than Edna, the main men characters are typical men of the late 19th century era. Chopin shows how these three men are diverse from one another. The Creole men are Léonce Pontellier, Edna’s husband, Robert, Edna’s mystery man number one, and Alcee, mystery man number two. Léonce, Edna’s husband, is a businessman who has no time for his family let alone his wife. Alcee comes off as carefree and does not seem to care what society thinks of him. Robert is Edna’s main mystery man who she loves but Robert doesn’t love her back. Throughout the novel, these men make Edna question herself, which lead her to her awakening. These men show how men in the late 19th century behaved. In a male dominated world, women were not allowed to do much except for be good wives and mothers to their families. Edna learned the hard way as to what it meant to be the wife of a Creole man in the Victorian era. Men expected too much of women because appearances meant everything and no man would want to have a wife who is out of line and not well behaved in public. In studying these three men in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, we see how different yet alike these men are to one another.

The final reason for Edna’s escape from her troublesome life is the failure of her relationship with Robert. Edna was able to find some form of escape through her desire and hope of being with Robert, but when those plans fell through Edna feels as if she has nothing to look forward to, nothing to live for in life. Robert realizes that he and Edna will never be able to have a true

In Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening a wife and a mother of two, Edna Pontellier, discovers her desires as a woman to live life to the fullest extent and to find her true self. Eventually, her discovery leads to friction between friends, family, and the dominant values of society. Through Chopin's use of Author’s craft and literary elements, the readers have a clear comprehension as to what the author is conveying.

In Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, the constant boundaries and restrictions placed on Edna Pontellier by society will lead to her struggle for freedom and her ultimate suicide. Her husband Leonce Pontellier, the current women of society, and the Grand Isle make it evident that Edna is trapped in a patriarchal society. Despite these people, Edna has a need to be free and she is able to escape from the society that she despises. The sea, Robert Lebrun, and Mademoiselle Reisz serve as Edna’s outlets from conformity. “Edna's journey for personal independence involves finding the words to express herself. She commits suicide rather than sacrificing her independent,

In her attempt to uncover the “grain running against the grain” in Chopin’s novel, Patricia Yaeger dismantles conventional approaches to The Awakening that regard the work as an emancipatory text by virtue of its rebellious, adulterous heroine alone. Using Tony Tanner’s analysis of Edna’s infidelity as “belonging to the tradition of transgressive narratives,” highlighted in his work, Adultery in the Novel, Yaeger conversely emphasizes how Chopin’s development of the romance plot between Edna and Robert supports rather than subverts patriarchy. Although Edna credits Robert with “[awakening] me last summer out of a life-long, stupid dream,” her love for him interrupts rather than inspires her awakening, for Edna has simply jumped from the shelter of Leonce’s money and the social stability he affords to the school-girl fantasy of romantic love Robert represents. In each relationship, whether financially or emotionally, Edna remains dependent upon a man, but more significantly, men exist as the mirror through which Edna perceives herself. Without Robert, Edna forfeits the life she began to construct for herself, as well as the burgeoning female subjectivity awakened the summer before.

Feminism has been a term used by many authors and writers for centuries, symbolizing women being able to use freedom the way they want to, not the way others want them to use it. Edna Pontellier, the main character in Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, experiences an “awakening” in her life, where she discovers her position in the universe and goes in this direction instead of what others like her husband Leonce tell her to take, similar to the style of feminism. “In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her,” (pg. 14). Chopin’s novel, published in 1899, received criticism and controversy because of its fashion of how it pictured feminism, especially with Edna taking her own life after learning she has no purpose in the world and wishes to cease existing. The Awakening uses symbols to express feminism in Edna’s eyes, such as birds, which represent Edna feeling caged in rather than being free, and the ocean, which depicts escape from reality, where Edna drowns herself.

Realism emerged in American culture as a direct reject against romanticism during the late 19th century. Authors begin to structuralize their works to mirror the simplistic reality of everyday life. As an artist during this era, the principal achievement to develop realistic works is to faithfully capture the essence of the life that surrounds him or her accurately. Writers sought to portray life as beautifully or tragically as it real was, without straying from the absolute truth. In doing so, authors vulnerable allowed readers into the lights of real characters and social problems not often exposed candidly. Kate Chopin is honorably amongst this group of authors. Her works divinely portrayed the culture of New Orleans and the lives of Louisiana 's Creole and Cajun residents. Chopin openly express her views on sex, marriage, and the injustices of women during the time. Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, best exemplifies the contextual achievement of realism through the rejection of conformity, the exploration of love, and the weight of social opinion on individual choices.

Societal gender roles have traditionally confined women to only domestic duties like cooking, cleaning, and child care. However, some women feel trapped and long for more independence outside of the traditional aspects of womanhood and motherhood. Women who desire the traditional mother-woman lifestyle experience easy societal approval, but other women struggle to find independence and happiness because it goes against societal expectations and can be considered selfish. In The Awakening, Kate Chopin uses the contrasting views and actions surrounding motherhood of Adele Ratignolle and Edna Pontellier to show that women should have the right to choose their own destiny and lifestyle, not based on what society expects of them, but based on their own personal desires and requirements for self-fulfillment.

In The Awakening, Kate Chopin ends the novel in a vastly different way than most authors would have at that time with her main character, Edna Pontellier, committing suicide by drowning herself. If one were to isolate this ending without any context whatsoever, it would feel tragic and depressing; however, the events leading up to her death actually explains to the readers her spiritual reassessment and moral reconciliation, both of which being themes significant to the book as a whole.

Fate is a highly questionable topic when it comes to how people live their lives. Many people can’t comprehend giving their life up to chance, but many believe it to be the best way to live. Fate is the destined path given to each person to implement throughout their lifetime. It can’t be stopped, or reasoned with, merely accepted. Many characters struggle with idea of fate in The Awakening, but nobody accepts fate more than Edna. In Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, fate is used as an irrepressible force that manipulates Edna in order to give her a better life.