The Awakening
by Kate Chopin
and Women’s History
•Women’s
History
• During the time of the
Revolutionary War “It
was almost
universally believed
that a woman’s brain
was smaller in
capacity and
therefore inferior in
quality to that of a
man.”
Early Advocates for Women
• Abigail Adams “
•
Remember the
ladies!”
Anne Hutchinson –
challenged the
authority of male
religious leaders in
Puritan
Massachusetts.
Republican Motherhood
• The concept related to
•
women's roles as mothers
in the emerging United
States before and after
the American Revolution
(c. 1760 to 1800).
It centered around the
belief that children should
be raised to uphold the
ideals of republicanism,
making them the perfect
citizens of the new
nation.
Early 19th century Women
1. Unable to vote.
2. Legal status of a minor.
3. Single  could own her own
property.
4. Married  no control over her
property or her children.
5. Could not initiate divorce.
6. Couldn’t make wills, sign a
contract, or bring suit in court
without her husband’s permission.
“Separate Spheres” Concept
“The Cult of Domesticity”
•
•
•
A woman’s “sphere” was in the home (it
was a
refuge from the cruel world outside).
Her role was to “civilize” & educate her
husband and
family.
An 1830s MA minister:
The power of woman is her dependence. A
woman who gives up that dependence on man
to become a reformer yields the power God has
given her for her protection, and her character
becomes unnatural!
Cult of Domesticity = Slavery
The 2nd Great Awakening inspired women
to improve society.
Angelina Grimké
Sarah Grimké
 Southern abolitionists
Lucy Stone
• American Women’s
Suffrage Assoc.
• edited Woman’s Journal
Cult of Domesticity
• Between 1820 and the Civil War, the growth of
new industries, businesses, and professions helped
to create in America a new middle class.
• (The Middle class consisted of families whose
husbands worked as lawyers, office workers,
factory managers, merchants, teachers, physicians
and others.)
Cult of Domesticity
• Although the new middle-class family had its roots in preindustrial society, it
differed from the preindustrial family in three major ways:
– I) A nineteenth-century middle-class family did not have to make what it
needed in order to survive. Men could work in jobs that produced goods or
services while their wives and children stayed at home.
– 2) When husbands went off to work, they helped create the view that men
alone should support the family. This belief held that the world of work, the
public sphere, was a rough world, where a man did what he had to in order
to succeed, that it was full of temptations, violence, and trouble.
• A woman who ventured out into such a world could easily fall prey to it, for
women were weak and delicate creatures. A woman's place was therefore in the
private sphere, in the home.
– 3) The middle-class family came to look at itself, and at the nuclear family
in general, as the backbone of society. Kin and community remained
important, but not nearly so much as they had once been.
Cult of Domesticity
• A new ideal of womanhood and a
new ideology about the home
arose out of the new attitudes
about work and family.
– Called the "cult of domesticity,"
it is found in women's
magazines, advice books,
religious journals, newspapers,
fiction--everywhere in popular
culture.
– This new ideal provided a new
view of women's duty and role
while cataloging the cardinal
virtues of true womanhood for a
new age.
Charles Dana Gibson, No Time for
Politics, 1910
Cult of Domesticity
• This ideal of womanhood had essentially four
parts--four characteristics any good and proper
young woman should cultivate:
–
–
–
–
Piety
Purity
Domesticity
Submissiveness
Cult of Domesticity
– Piety: Nineteenth-century Americans believed that
women had a particular propensity for religion. The
modern young woman of the 1820s and 1830s was
thought of as a new Eve working with God to bring the
world out of sin through her suffering, through her pure,
and passionless love.
– Purity: Female purity was also highly revered. Without
sexual purity, a woman was no woman, but rather a
lower form of being, a "fallen woman," unworthy of the
love of her sex and unfit for their company.
Cult of Domesticity
– Domesticity: Woman's place was in the home. Woman's role
was to be busy at those morally uplifting tasks aimed at
maintaining and fulfilling her piety and purity.
– Submissiveness: This was perhaps the most feminine
of virtues.
• Men were supposed to be religious, although not generally. Men
were supposed to be pure, although one could really not expect it.
But men never supposed to be submissive. Men were to be movers,
and doers--the actors in life.
• Women were to be passive bystanders, submitting to fate,
to duty, to God, and to men.
Look at the following photo. On the organizer provided you, write down what
you see? What inferences can you make based on your evidence?
(Remember : Background knowledge + text clues = Inference)
The Awakening
By
Kate Chopin
Setting and Social Background
• Grand Isle and New Orleans,
•
•
•
LA – circa 1899 are the two
settings
N.O. – Catholic, French, with
a great deal of interracial
mixing – is a relatively easygoing society.
Husbands are NOT overly
jealous of the attentions that
their wives receive from other
men. Women do not place
too much credence on these
attentions.
The problem comes from
Edna who is not from there –
she does take Robert’s
flirtations seriously.
Cont.
• Edna is a Southern Presbyterian
•
who contrasts with her husband
who is a Creole.
Creoles are the descendants of
early French or Spanish settlers.
Another definition is a mixture
of African and French or African
and Spanish. A third definition
is “Gens de Couleur” or “Free
People of Color”
Cont.
• NO was established in 1718 as a French•
•
•
•
Canadian outpost.
Located by the mouth of the Mississippi, it
developed rapidly.
Its unique social structure began to evolve
with the mass importation of African slaves in
the 1720s.
By the end of the 18th century it was the
haven of smugglers, gamblers, prostitutes, and
pirates!
Became refuge of whites and free blacks – and
their slaves – escaping slave revolts in St.
Dominque.
Cont.
• The Spanish, French, and people
of color worked together, lived
next door to one another, and
intermarried, creating a distinctive
Creole culture.
• NO was already a diverse city
when it was part of the Louisiana
Purchase – American immigrants
weren’t particularly welcome there.
• Then, in the Battle of NO, the final
battle of the War of 1812, Anglos
and Creoles fought side by side.
They were even backed by pirates
like Jean Lafitte!
Cont.
• Before the Civil War, NO experienced an
•
•
•
economic Golden Age as a port and finance
center for the cotton industry.
This came to an end with the Union
occupation and the Union blockade.
The Old “French Quarter”- where Edna and
the others live – is the site of the original
settlement. The Quarter is laid out on a grid
that hasn’t changed since 1721.
The architecture is predominantly Spanish,
with a strong Caribbean influence.
Symbolism in the Text
ART –
- a symbol of both freedom and failure
- a major part of Edna’s awakening is her
decision to take up painting again
- through her sale of paintings, she is able to
leave Leonce’s house and move to the Pigeon
House
- there is the suggestion that her art is flawed
(her drawing of Mad. Ratignolle is not a good
likeness)
- Mad. Reisz often cautions Edna about what it
takes to be an artist – the “courageous soul”
and the “strong wings”.
Birds
- major symbol from the first page
to the final image
- the mockingbird and parrot
symbolize various ineffective
attempts at communication.
- both birds are best known for their
imitation of others, rather than
having their own voice – they
cannot tell their own stories
- the parrot screeches “Get out! Get
out!” which could foreshadow
Edna’s desire to leave confines of
her middle-class life.
- The fact that both birds
are caged clearly shows
entrapment.
- the ability to spread
wings and fly occurs
often in the novel –
“strong wings”
- while listening to
Mad.Riesz, Edna
daydreams about a naked
man standing on a beach
watching a bird fly away.
Food
• There are several symbolic meals in the novel
including
– The meal on Cheniere Caminada which occurs when she
wakes up from her fairy tale sleep
– The dinner party at her “old house” when she is ready to
leave for the Pigeon House – viewed by some to recreate the
Last Supper
Swimming
Appears as a central issue 3 times
- Edna tells Mad. Ratignolle of her
experience as a young girl
swimming through the meadow –
here the swimming is an escape
from formalized religion (Edna’s
father’s gloomy prayers)
- Edna finally learns how to swim –
after trying all summer.
Experiences exhilaration and
freedom. Also experiences the
fear of drowning
Cont.
The final swimming episode is ultimately
ambiguous. Is edna embracing a new
freedom from restriction by stripping off
her clothes and surrendering herself to the
seduction of the sea, or – is it a final
desperate act because she can no longer
live the life she seems destined to live???
Water
• Water is a symbol of both freedom and
escape.
• Edna remember the Kentucky fields of her
childhood as an ocean, and she
daydreams of the day she “swam” the
meadow. Her learning to swim in the Gulf
is a show of self-assertion, and she finally
“escapes to the sea”. Even in NO there are
lots of references to water in the form of
rain or the river.
Piano Playing
• Even at the beginning of the novel we hear the
•
Farival twins playing the piano. Here, the fact of
playing the piano is an allusion to the opera. On
the evening of Edna’ 1st swim, the twins play
again, but their inept poundings are replaced by
Mad. Reisz.
Both Adele and Mad. Reisz play the piano. Each
woman functions to underscore a different
aspect of the novel. Adele is good because she
practices every day – but she does not love it.
She wants to set a good example for her kids.
Mad. Reisz is an artist. She serves as a mentor
to Edna.
Sleep and Awakening
• The 1st night of the novel, Edna cannot
sleep after her husband rebukes her for
neglecting the children. It is during this
sleepless night that her “awakening”
begins. We are told, “An indescribable
oppression, which seemed to generate in
some unfamiliar part of her consciousness,
filled her whole being with a vague
anguish.”
Cont.
Similarly, the night of Edna’s 1st successful swim,
she also cannot sleep. Yet, the next day, she
experiences a deep, dream-filled sleep during
her nap at the home of Madame Antoine.
Each major episode – disagreements with Leonce,
encounters with Alcee, Madame Ratignolle’s
childbed – are punctuated by specific mentions
of Edna’s sleep, or lack of sleep. During this
time, physical sleep also comes to represent a
state of awareness as in Edna’s conversation
with Doctor Mandelet the night of the birth.
Themes
• Repressed Feelings – almost everyone in the book , w/
the possible exceptions of Mad. Ratignolle and her
hubby, repress their feelings, and this repression has a
significant impact on how the characters interact and
how the plot develops.
- We are told very early that Leonce truly loves Edna.
But does he tell her??? Robert flees to Mexico rather
than express his love. On his return to NO, he delays
seeing her for the same reason.
- Mademoiselle Reisz seems to possess an insight into
matters of the heart and soul yet she never reveals what
in her past gives her this wisdom.
- It is ultimately Edna’s inability to repress her newly
discovered feelings that drives her to suicide.
Cont.
• Personal Freedom – all of the characters
are trapped by social expectations. The
only characters who are not ( Victor, Mad.
Reisz, and Alcee) are criticized by others.
As Edna begins to gain a sense of
personal freedom (evidenced by her
learning to swim, painting, bagging her “at
home” days, and moving out), she, too,
falls subject to gossip and criticism.
Cont.
• Role of Women- The society of Chopin’s
novel allows for essentially one feminine
role, and that is wife and mother
(“…women who idolized their children,
worshiped their husbands, and esteemed
it a holy privilege to efface themselves as
individuals and grow wings as ministering
angels.”) The various female characters in
the novel represent the various responses
to this single role.
Cont.
• Madame Ratignolle fills the role perfectly. She is
•
•
the “embodiment of every womanly grace and
charm.” Notice that she is pregnant throughout
the novel.
Mademoiselle Reisz represents the woman who
has thumbed her nose at the role. She is
described as “a disagreeable little woman, no
longer young… (with) …a temper which was
self- assertive and a disposition to trample upon
the rights of others. She lives in near poverty.
Edna, of course finds it difficult in her role
Cont.
Search for Self – To some extent, this
theme is a combination of the idea of the
repressed feelings and the search for
personal freedom. It is only by witnessing
Edna’s struggle of self-actualization that
we can question whether any of the
characters has a strong sense of self. If
there is such a character, it is probably
Mad. Riesz.
Alienation and Loneliness
• Mad. Riesz lives alone but does not seem
to be lonely. Edna, on the other hand,
feels lonely when her husband and
children and more but she feels no less
alone when she is with him. With Robert,
however, she is not lonely. It is the
ultimate aloneness caused by Robert’s
final leaving that immediately precipitates
Edna’s final act.
• Consequences of Choices
- Immediately before Robert and Edna’s
reunion, Madame Ratignolle warns Edna,
“You seem to me like a child, Edna. You
seem to act without a certain amount of
reflection that is necessary in this life.” Does
Edna care about the repercussions of any of
her decisions?