The Awakening, Kate Chopin
Frank look at a woman’s life at the turn of the 19th century
A novel about a woman who questioned not only her role in society, but he
standards of society itself.
Examples of a socially acceptable “role” Edna could adopt:
 a perfect mother and wife
 an independent but somewhat ostracized “old maid”
 the “flirt”
 one of the “young lovers”
 a pious almost single-mindedly religious woman.
Men – operate as catalysts for these choices
Frequently focused on Creole culture of Louisiana
Unique regional features include a heritage that draws from French and
Spanish ancestry, a complex caste system, the settings of urban New Orleans
and rural vacation retreats
Genre:
 Bildungsroman – novel of intellectual, spiritual or moral evolution
 Kunslerroman – novel of artistic realization or development
 Shares elements of and is heavily influenced by the local color genre
Setting:
Time – 1899at a time when the Industrial Revolution and the feminist
movement were beginning to emerge yet were still overshadowed by the
prevailing attitudes of the 19th century
Themes:
 Solitude as the Consequence of Independence
 Implications of Self-Expression
Motifs:
 Music
 Children
 Houses
Symbols:
Art
Ocean, Sea, or Gulf
Clothes
Piano playing
Birds
Sleep
Sea
Food
Houses
Learning to swim
The moon
 Foreshadowing
 Realism: a literary movement in the 19th century that focused on
reporting aspects of “common” life (remember common is a relative
term); slice of life; accurate representation of reality; the use of the
imagination to represent things as common sense supposes they are
 Verisimilitude – the appearance of truth
Myths and Fairy Tales:
There are no direct mentions of myths and fairy tales except for the Gulf
spirit, but there are many subtle allusions to a body of mythological or
folkloric tales:
Classical Myths:
 Aphrodite (Greek) or Venus (Latin) – goddess of love and beauty
 Artemis (Greek) or Diana (Latin) – Apollo’s twin sister and the
daughter of Zeus. Goddess of the woods, wild things, and was
huntsman-in-chief to the gods. Protection of the young and fertility
goddess; associated with the defense of women
 Echo and Narcissus: echo – a beautiful nymph who was overly fond
of talking. Fell in love with Narcissus
 Gulf Spirit: other spirits in folklore who come out of the sea, appear at
special times, looking for a soul mate or wife.
 Icarus
 Orpheaus and Eurydice.
 Psyche:
 Selene or Luna
Fairy Tales:
 Pattern and structure: fairy tales that have women as their central
characters are usually structured in this manner: a quick summary of
their childhood where the reader learns that they are beautiful, good,
and protected from the outside world. In their adolescence a spell is
either cast upon them or an old spell takes effect. In most cases the
spell leads to sleep, but it may lead to isolation. Te effect of this
sleep/isolation is that the woman is kept innocent, so that when the
hero arrives and breaks the spell or finds the woman, she is pure and
worthy of love and happiness.
o Think about what this means for Edna.
 When men are the heroes the pattern is different: they are constructed
more in keeping with stories of quests. The character faces a series of
challenges or tests, completes them, and takes his place in the world.
Spells are usually problems to overcome. Transforming spells
separate male centered fairy tales even more from their female
counterparts. When a man is changed in appearance, he can no longer
rely on his looks, but must succeed through his actions.
NOVELS OF FEMALE AWAKENING:
 They tend to have protagonists who grow significantly “only after
fulfilling the fairy-tale expectation that they will marry and live
‘happily ever after’, they frequently portray a break from marital,
rather than parental, authority and thus are often novels of adultery.
 The development of the story is usually “compressed into brief
emphatic moments. Since the significant changes are internal, flashes
of recognition often replace the continuous unfolding of actions”