The
Awakening
Kate Chopin
The Awakening is a novel by
Kate Chopin. She began
writing the novel in 1897, and
finished it in January 1898. It
was first published by Herbert
S. Stone & Company of
Chicago in April 1889.
The Awakening was a
controversial novel due to
the subject matter. Among
it’s detractors was well
known author Willa
Cather, who called it trite
and sordid. Others labeled
it morbid, vulgar, and
disagreeable.
The Novel: The Awakening
The Awakening is a novel about a woman’s journey: away from her
traditional upbringing and towards her own personal needs. Edna
Pontellier, an unsatisfied married woman, finds love with Robert
Lebrun.
They meet on Grand Isle, a
vacation resort run by his
mother. Edna is there with her
sons, and on weekends, her
adoring husband.
Summer flirtations are
commonplace for Robert. When
his relationship with Edna
deepens, he flees to Mexico on
the pretext of business.
Greatly saddened, Edna returns to her home in New Orleans. Her
husband, Léonce, notices her growing apathy.
Edna resists her old society life, and turns to her art as solace. She
seeks out friends from Grand Isle, hoping to hear word of Robert.
She comes upon Mademoiselle Reisz, who corresponds with Robert.
Edna becomes a frequent visitor to the pianist. She reads his
letters, and dreams of being together again.
Léonce leaves to attend to business in New York, Edna refuses to go
with him.
Edna’s dissatisfaction with her
life deepens, and she sends her
sons to visit their grandmother
in the country.
She starts socializing with Mrs.
Highcamp, a woman of known
loose morals, and her friend
Alcée Arobin.
Esplanade St, The Pontellier’s New Orlean residence
Edna decides to move out of the family home and into a small
cottage nearby. She calls it the “pigeon house”. She plans to
support herself through her painting.
While longing for Robert, Edna begins an
affair with Alcée. Although her physical
needs are met, she is still unhappy.
On a visit to Mlle. Reisz, Edna finds that
Robert has returned to New Orleans.
She is overcome with happiness, believing they can start a life
together.
Robert returns with her to the pigeon house, and they rekindle their
romance. Although he is concerned with her friendship with Alcée
Arobin, they begin to plan a future together.
Somewhat inconveniently, Edna is called away to the side of her
friend, Madame Ratignolle, to assist with her confinement.
While attending to her friend, Edna experiences an epiphany. She
realizes that she does love her sons. She does not want to disgrace
them by living a life of casual affairs, like Mrs. Highcamp.
She also recognizes that she is ultimately selfish, and that her
needs will always come before her children’s.
She returns to the pigeon house to find
that Robert has left. He has chosen to
abandon their love rather than ruin their
good names.
Edna returns to Grand Isle, where their
romance began.
As she walks on the beach, the water
beckons to her. She swims, thinking of
her life, family, and friends, until she is
unable to make it back to shore.
The Author: Kate Chopin
Catherine O’Flaherty was born Feb 8, 1850,
in St Louis Missouri to Thomas and Eliza O’
Flaherty. Due to her mother’s background
she grew up speaking French and English
in the home. She considered herself FrenchAmerican. Her embrace of the French
culture is evident in many of her novels.
Kate’s father died in 1885 and her great-grandmother, who
encouraged her love of her French heritage, died in 1863.
Kate grew up in St. Louis, a divided city that supported both the
Union and the Confederacy. She grew up with slavery as part of her
daily life.
Kate kept a journal of sorts, a book of
essays , poems and diary entries written
from 1867 to1870. In 1869, she wrote her
first story, “Emancipation: A Life Fable”.
Kate married Oscar Chopin of Natchitoches
Parish, Louisiana on June 9,1870. After a
honeymoon in Europe they settled in New
Orleans where Oscar established a business.
Kate gave birth to
her first son,
Jean Baptiste, on
May 22, 1871.
Oscar Chopin, 1870
More children soon followed. Oscar
Charles was born September 24,
1873. George Francis, born October
28, 1874. Frederick, born January
26, 1876. Felix Andrew, born
January 8, 1878. Marie Laïza (Lélia),
born December 31, 1879.
Kate Chopin with sons: Fred, George,
Jean, Oscar, 1877
The family moved to Cloutierville,
LA in 1879 where Oscar purchased
a general store.
Oscar Chopin died December 10,
1882 from malaria.
Although she never remarried, Kate enjoyed a romance with Albert
Sampite from 1883 to 1884. When the relationship failed, Kate
moved back to St. Louis.
A family friend, Dr. Frederick Kolbenheyer, encouraged her to
continue writing.
Kate was influenced by Guy De Maupassant, and
other French and American writers.
She also involved herself in St. Louis literary and
cultural circles.
Her first novel, At Fault, was published in 1890.
Over the next several years, Kate wrote prolifically.
Her novels include:
“A No Account Creole”
“Beyond the Bayou”
“Ripe Figs”
“The Story of an Hour”
“At the ‘Cadian Ball”
“A Matter of Prejudice
“Athénaïse”
“Charlie”
Her last publication, “Polly”,
appeared in Youth’s Companion
on July 3, 1902.
Kate Chopin died on August 22,
1904 of a brain hemorrhage.
Historical Reference
Kate Chopin wrote primarily about things she was familiar with:
life in the South and French-American culture.
In “The Awakening”, Kate incorporated both of those elements, and
also the idea that a woman could be a separate entity from her
husband. Her idea that a woman’s needs were important was
somewhat radical. Women were not considered to be independent,
and women’s rights were still being fought for.
Contemporary Review
“Books and Magazines”, Pittsburgh Leader, July
8, 1899 Signed “Sibert” (Willa Cather)
A Creole Bovary is this little novel of Miss Chopin's. Not that the heroine is a Creole exactly, or that Miss
Chopin is a Flaubert--save the mark!--but the theme is similar to that which occupied Flaubert. There was,
indeed, no need that a second Madame Bovary should be written, but an author's choice of themes is
frequently as inexplicable as his choice of a wife. It is governed by some innate temperamental bias that cannot
be diagrammed. This is particularly so in women who write, and I shall not attempt to say why Miss Chopin
has devoted so exquisite and sensitive, well-governed a style to so trite and sordid a theme. She writes much
better than it is ever given to most people to write, and hers is a genuinely literary style; of no great elegance or
solidity; but light, flexible, subtle, and capable of producing telling effects directly and simply. The story she
has to tell in the present instance is new neither in matter nor treatment. Edna Pontellier, a Kentucky girl, who,
like Emma Bovarv, had been in love with innumerable dream heroes before she was out of short skirts, married
Leonce Pontellier as a sort of reaction from a vague and visionary passion for a tragedian whose unresponsive
picture she used to kiss. She acquired the habit of liking her husband in time, and even of liking her children.
Though we are not justified in presuming that she ever threw articles from her dressing table at them, as the
charming Emma had a winsome habit of doing. We are told that "she would sometimes gather them
passionately to her heart; she would sometimes forget them." At a Creole watering place, which is admirably
and deftly sketched by Miss Chopin, Edna met Robert Lebrun, son of the landlady, who dreamed of a fortune
awaiting him in Mexico while he occupied a petty clerical position in New Orleans. Robert made it his business
to be agreeable to his mother's boarders, and Edna, not being a Creole, much against his wish and will, took
him seriously. . . . The lover of course disappointed her, was a coward and ran away from his responsibilities
before they began. He was afraid to begin a chapter with so serious and limited a woman. She remembered the
sea where she had first met Robert. Perhaps from the same motive which threw Anna Karenina under the
engine wheels, she threw herself into the sea, swam until she was tired and then let go. . . .
Edna Pontellier and Emma Bovary are studies in the same feminine type; one a finished and complete
portrayal, the other a hasty sketch, but the theme is essentially the same. Both women belong to a
class, not large, but forever clamoring in our ears, that demands more romance out of life than God put
into it. Mr. G. Bernard Shaw would say that they are the victims of the over- idealization of love. They
are the spoil of the poets, the Iphigenias of sentiment. The unfortunate feature of their disease is that it
attacks only women of brains, at least of rudimentary brains, but whose development is one-sided;
women of strong and fine intuitions, but without the faculty of observation, comparison, reasoning
about things. Probably, for emotional people, the most convenient thing about being able to think is that
it occasionally gives them a rest from feeling. Now with women of the Bovary type, this relaxation and
recreation is impossible. They are not critics of life, but, in the most personal sense, partakers of life.
They receive impressions through the fancy. With them everything begins with fancy, and passions rise
in the brain rather than in the blood, the poor, neglected, limited one-sided brain that might do so much
better things than badgering itself into frantic endeavors to love. For these are the people who pay with
their blood for the fine ideals of the poets, as Marie Delclasse paid for Dumas' great creation, Marguerite
Gauthier. These people really expect the passion of love to fill and gratify every need of life, whereas
nature only intended that it should meet one of many demands. They insist upon making it stand for all
the emotional pleasures of life and art; expecting an individual and self-limited passion to yield infinite
variety, pleasure, and distraction, to contribute to their lives what the arts and the pleasurable exercise
of the intellect gives to less limited and less intense idealists. So this passion, when set up against
Shakespeare, Balzac, Wagner, Raphael, fails them. They have staked everything on one hand, and they
lose. They have driven the blood until it will drive no further, they have played their nerves up to the
point where any relaxation short of absolute annihilation is impossible. Every idealist abuses his nerves,
and every sentimentalist brutally abuses them. And in the end, the nerves get even. Nobody ever cheats
them, really. Then "the awakening" comes. Sometimes it comes in the form of arsenic, as it came to
Emma Bovary, sometimes it is carbolic acid taken covertly in the police station, a goal to which
unbalanced idealism not infrequently leads. Edna Pontellier, fanciful and romantic to the last, chose the
sea on a summer night and went down with the sound of her first lover's spurs in her ears, and the
scent of pinks about her. And next time I hope that Miss Chopin will devote that flexible iridescent style
of hers to a better cause.
Group Review
The Awakening is a work of fiction centered around a woman named Edna
Pontellier and her struggles to deal with the role of a woman in 1890’s
America. The story takes place in the same time period as Kate Chopin’s life
and it seems to reflect the attitude of 19th century where men and woman
had certain defining roles and the struggles of women not able to truly
express themselves. The central character Edna Pontellier is a married
mother of two sons. Her awakening is her realization of how her life could
have been like if she didn’t conform to societie’s norms. It is also her
discovery of her independence.
This book was ahead of its time considering the issues it dealt with such as
infidelity and the responsibilities of the woman in a family and society.
Especially considering the time and place in which it was published. It was
a time when women were supposed to be chase and conservative. The story
took place in Louisiana where women were deemed incompetent to make a
contract and were basically their husbands property. I personally did not like
the book. It wasn’t interesting or entertaining to me. The fact that there was
French in it made it less appealing to me. I also didn’t like how the
protagonist, Edna put herself above her family.
Group Rating
We gave this book a solid
The group agreed that while some may like this story, we didn’t. We felt
that reading it was time we could have better spent sleeping.
Edna was just so unlikable that none of us were sad that she drowned.
And that’s a real tragedy….
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. N.p.: Barnes & Nobles, Inc., 1997. Illustrations
copyright 1997 by John Collier. Acknowledgements for all other copyrighted
material appear at the opening of each individual essay or work.
"The Kate Chopin International Society." KateChopin.org. 8 Dec. 2008
<http://www.katechopin.org/biography.shtml>.
"Cultural Contexts: Kate Chopin Revealed in Her Own Words ."
BedfordStMartins.com. 2 Dec. 2008
<http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/Virtualit/fiction/cultural.asp?e=2b>.
"Cloutierville." CaneRiverHeritage.org. 8 Dec. 2008
<http://www.caneriverheritage.org/main_file.php/pointsofinterest.php/78/>.
English. Dept. home page. SwissEduc. 2 Dec. 2008 <http://www.swisseduc.ch/
english/readinglist/chopin_kate/index.html>.
"The Mystery of Love: As Seen in Kate Chopin's 'A Story of an Hour.'"
Associated Content. 8 Dec. 2008 <http://www.associatedcontent.com/
article/223908/the_mystery_of_love_as_seen_in_kate.html?cat=38>.
Koloski, Bernard. Katechopin.org Kate Chopin International Society. 8 Dec 2008
http://www.katechopin.org/biography.shtml
Yagmin, James. Lieberman, David. BookRags.com 1999 8 Dec 2008
http://www.bookrags.com/notes/awa/CHR.htm
Synopsis of Presentation
Kate Chopin
• Born February 8, 1850 in St Louis Missouri as Catherine O’Flaherty
• Married Oscar Chopin of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.
• Mothered six children from 1873 to 1879
• Husband Oscar died December 10, 1882 from malaria
• Had a romance with Albert Sampite from 1883 to 1884 which failed
• Kate was influenced by Guy De Maupassant and other French and
American writers
• Her first novel, At Fault was published in 1890. Continued to write
prolifically the next several years. Other works include “The Storm”,
“The Story of an Hour”, “Desiree’s Baby,” “Polly,” to name a few
• Died on August 22, 1904 of a brain hemorrhage
Synopsis of Presentation
Historical Reference
• Kate Chopin wrote primarily about things she was familiar with: life
inthe South and French-American culture
• In “The Awakening”, Kate incorporated both of those elements, and
also the idea that a woman could be a separate entity from her
husband.
• Her idea that a woman’s needs were important was somewhat
radical.
• Women were not considered to be independent, and women’s rights
were still being fought for.
Synopsis of Presentation
The Awakening
• Published in 1889
• It was a controversial novel due to the subject matter
• Received unfavorable reviews, labeled as morbid, vulgar, and
disagreeable
• Chopin’s fiction was mostly forgotten after her death until scholars
and readers set in motion a Kate Chopin revival in the 1950’s
Synopsis of Presentation
Characters
• Edna Pontellier: Main character who awakens to a new life as she
discovers her independence
• Leonce Pontellier: Edna’s wealthy, old fashioned husband. Shows
frustration towards her if she behaves outside societal norms
• Robert Lebrun: Younger man whom Edna falls in love with and vice
versa
• Adele Ratignolle: the epitome of what a woman is expected to be
during this time as a wife and mother of five
• Mademoiselle Reisz: an eccentric pianist who is a close friend of
Robert Lebrun. She is the
opposite of Madame Ratignolle.
She is independent, carefree and single with no children.
• Alcee Arobin: a young gambling, womanizing businessman who
seduces Edna.
Synopsis of Presentation
Plot Summary
• A novel about a woman’s journey: away from her traditional
upbringing and towards her own personal needs
• Edna Pontellier, an unsatisfied married woman finds love with
Robert Lebrun
• When their relationship deepens Robert flees to Mexico on pretense
of business
• Edna is saddened by this and Leonce notices her apathy
• Edna turns to art as solace
• She becomes a frequent visitor to Mademoiselle Reisz, who
corresponds with Robert
• Leonce leaves to attend to business in New York, Edna refuses to go
and then sends her sons to their grandmother
Synopsis of Presentation
• Edna starts socializing with Mrs. Highcamp, a woman of known
loose morals and her friend Alcee Arobin
• She moves out of the family home and into a small cottage and
plans to support herself through her painting
• While longing for Robert, Edna begins an affair with Alcee although
she is still unhappy
• Edna discovers that Robert has returned and rekindles their
romance. They start to plan their future
• Edna is called away to the side of her friend Madame Ratignolle to
assist with her confinement.
• Suddenly she has an epiphany. She realizes that she loves her sons
and does not want to disgrace them by having casual affairs, like
Mrs Highcamp.
Synopsis of Presentation
• She also recognizes that she is ultimately selfish and that her needs
will always come before her children’s
• She returns to the cottage to find Robert has left and he has chosen
to abandon their love rather than ruin their good names
• Edna returns to Grand Isle where their romance began.
• She walks into the water and swims, thinking of her life, family and
friends until she is unable to make it back to shore.