The Awakening

1
The Awakening

• By Kate Chopin

2
Authors Date and Cultural Perspective

• Born February 8, 1850, in St. Louis, Missouri
• Historical Background
• written during the emergence of the feminist
  movement, not fully fledged just yet
• The Awakening became the end of her literary
  career, though it is now regarded as a classic,
  as society was shocked by her portrayal and
  support of female independence and adultery
• Victorian Era (1837-1901)
• artistic styles, literary schools, as well as,
  social, political and religious movements
  flourished
• scientific progress ideas
• upheaval of old hierarchal order, middle class
  growing
• a time of prosperity, broad imperial expansion,
  and great political reform
• Great change brought about in this period-
  Industrial revolution
• Literature often concerned with social reform,
  strong sense of morality supports the oppressed
• Feminist Movement (1848-1920)
• 1848, women gathered in New York State to begin
  addressing issues of equality
• Womens groups formed to educate women on social
  and political issues
• The war challenged stereotypes in the home and
  workplace
• Important places Grand Isle (outside of New
  Orleans) New Orleans

3
Symbols

• Birds- remind Edna of being caged, trapped
• (Parrot Edna / MockingbirdMadame Reisz)
• Represent her flight to become a free
  individual, in her new home, the pigeon house
  which she purchased on her own, though this traps
  her all the more
• Ednas suicide paralleled with the depiction of
  the bird with A bird with a broken wing was
  beating the air above, reeling, fluttering,
  circling disabled down, down to the water
• The Sea- Ednas freedom, the only time she is
  truly alone, when she swims out on her own, only
  to be stricken by fear, represents Ednas
  rebirth/awakening
• Art- Ednas freedom, self expression,
  individuality her awakening is characterized by
  her pursuit to become an artist
• Clothes- throughout the novel, Edna gradually
  removes her clothes, a social statement about how
  she is similarly shedding societys rules. In the
  end when she commits suicide, Edna is completely
  naked, discarding all that she has in her quest
  for selfhood
• Houses- Grand Isle New Orleans homes she is
  caged, expected to be the mother woman
  Cheniere Caminada Edna can sleep and dream the
  pigeon house she can create a world of her own
• Learning to swim- swim is empowerment and Edna
  struggles through out the novel. It evokes great
  joy, and then utter fear as she looks back to the
  shore at how fat our shes swum

4
Conflicts

• Conflict with self Internal struggle of
  accepting her role as the mother woman versus
  challenging herself to be different and become a
  true artist, the courageous soul
• Conflict with society conflict with the expected
  mother-woman role of females Edna wishes to
  break out and be more than just a woman slaving
  over her husband and children. Being a single and
  independent woman is ostracized by society,
  depicted through the character of Madame Reisz
• Conflict with nature perhaps learning to swim.
  The commits suicide by basically swimming out too
  far and drowning herself a means of cleansing
  and a new birth, finally doing something on her
  own terms.

5
Influence of Setting

• The cottage in Grande Isle is the site of her
  initial awakening, after she meets Robert and
  Madame Reisz
• The house on Esplanade Street represents
  everything that is Leonces including Edna.
• Edna experiences a new, romantic, and foreign
  world at the cheniere caminadathe site of Ednas
  transformation through a dream like slumber
  alluded to a fairytale.
• At the pigeon house, she can create a world of
  her own, and act as she wishes without worrying
  about others opinions. Sexual awakening
  continues as her husband is not present.

6
Questions

• Anyone under an illusion Edna is under the
  illusion that Robert will turn out to be more
  than a typical man of the time. In the end he
  disappoints her, when he wants to make Edna his
  wife and have kids, which would put her in the
  same cage as her current husband.
• Anyone idealistic? Edna is idealistic about
  independence, marriage, and how life could be.
  She asserts her beliefs when she does not fawn
  over her children, like the expected mother
  woman, rather she goes after her passion, art.
  She wants to be more than just the housewife and
  is idealistic in this pursuit.
• Anyone make an important mistake? Robert made the
  mistake of telling Edna he wanted her to be his
  wife, though he had no clue this was a mistake
  when he said it. This was the final straw,
  squashing her hopes, which set Edna over the edge
  before she committed suicide.
• Anyone change? Edna undergoes a whole awakening
  throughout the novel. She awakes out of this
  trance like state she believes she has been in
  all her life, and realizes that she has potential
  to be more than just a mother woman. She
  transforms from a conforming, unhappy woman
  leading an unfulfilled life, into an awakened
  independent woman, putting her own needs above
  those of her family.

7
More Questions

• Is there a villain? The villain could possibly be
  Ednas husband, Leonce. Though he loves his wife
  and kids dearly, he is very concerned with social
  appearances. He wishes Edna would behave like a
  typical woman of the day. But he serves more to
  highlight the stereotypes of the day.
• Is friendship important? Ednas friendships with
  Madame Reisz, Robert, and Adele Ratignolle are
  key to the story.
• Madame Reisz is an unmarried, childless woman who
  chases her passion, music. She is an artist and
  Edna looks to her for advice and companionship
  (Reisz is foil to Ratignolle).
• Adele Ratignolle is the stereotypical mother
  woman of the time she idolizes her children and
  worships her husband. She aids in Ednas
  transformation as Edna comes out of her shell
  after experiencing the free nature of Creole
  women.
• Edna falls in love with Robert Lebrun. He
  eventually realizes he has fallen in love with
  Edna, but is torn over societys view that Edna
  is her husbands possession. Robert is the
  catalyst for Ednas suicide, when he expresses to
  her his desire to make her his own mother woman.

8
Questions

• Is the narrator important? The narrator is
  anonymous, though she seems to share the same
  views as Edna. She often expresses sympathy and
  support for Edna.
• Are family relationships important? Ednas entire
  internal struggle is between her own desires
  versus the desires and needs of her family.
  Though the time period demands she place all
  needs of her own aside and sacrifice everything
  for her family, Edna sees things differently,
  which is her major internal conflict. As she
  awakens, Edna realizes her own needs and pursues
  them, despite the family demands. In the end she
  leaves her family in her ultimate act of self
  fulfillment where she finally has control over
  her own decisions.
• Some human value asserted? Edna asserts her
  independence. Women during the time were expected
  to sacrifice everything for their families, and
  this did not agree with Edna.
• Anyone lost or alienated? From the start Madame
  Reisz is alienated and ostracized for being
  unmarried, having no children, and living on her
  own. This was very strange for the time, and
  people saw her as an outcast because she did not
  conform to their ideals.

9
Last Few Questions

• Cultures at odds? At the brink of the feminist
  movement and the end of the Victorian era, the
  stereotypical mother woman ideal and the idea
  of independent women is beginning to clash. Edna
  is merely one of the thousands that had this
  feeling that there was something wrong with the
  way things were in the Victorian culture. Edna
  was not alone, though she felt very alone through
  out the novel.
• Parallels or contrasts with other works we have
  read? This is directly contrasting with Okonkwos
  ideals that culture must be preserved. For
  Okonkwo, his culture was flipped upside down, and
  this was his defeat. For Edna, this is the exact
  opposite. She needs her culture to be flipped
  upside down in order to survive, and when she
  realizes it wont, she ends her life.
• Tone At most times the tone is objective.
  However, when the narrator discusses the sea or
  Ednas dreams/ periods of awakening, the tone is
  more mystical. Occasionally the narrators tone
  is sympathetic for Edna.
• Diction formal, Victorianrepresenting the class
  and attitudes of the time.
• Genre Bildungsroman (novel of intellectual,
  spiritual or moral evolution) kunstlerroman
  (novel of artistic realization or development)
  shares elements of and is heavily influenced by
  the local color genre
• http//www.sparknotes.com/lit/awakening/facts.html
  
• Irony
• The place Edna awakens is also the place she
  commits suicide
• That Robert wants Edna to be his mother woman
  in the end
• Though Edna is an artist, she never becomes the
  true artist with that courageous soul to
  overcome the adversity that she would be faced
  with, had she left her husband