Free Awakening Essays: An Analysis of The Awakening

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An Analysis of The Awakening

The first thing I would like to do is go through and pick out the chapters I found to be significant in the novel.

Chapter 1: *there is symbolism of a well trained “caged” bird, (like we read in the hypertext) which represents what wives were to be in Edna’s lifetime *well trained *speaks of pleasantries *begins with Summer a time of beauty, fullness and fruition *Grand Isle *vacation from New Orleans life (imprisonment) *ends at Summer after 1 yr *this vacation follows Edna back to New Orleans where she gradually begins to see how trapped she really is *it is after this vacation that Edna begins to “awake” Chapter 2: *Edna was from Kentucky and married a Creole *this is a conflict in religion *she is Presbetyrian and he’s Catholic *this presents a problem for Edna for she has to live a Catholic life style Chapter 3: *we first see here the marital problems that M&M Pontellier have *the ideals of what Mr. Pontellier expects of Edna *looking after the children was very important *marital state: bored, unlively, becomes more depressing on her *impt: Edna’s breakdown, her crying Chapter 4: *Adele, the perfect woman *embodies all the qualities of what a woman-mother should be *she’s been married 7 yrs and has a child about every 2 yrs, again fullfilling her womanly and motherly duties. *her identity seems to be consumed by having children and her current “state” Chapter 7: *this chapter we see Edna begin to slip away, she doesn’t pay as much attention to things *daydreaming/ Adele asks her a question and Edna is not with her Chapter 10: *Edna learns to SWIM!!!!!!! very impt. *she gains control of her body *the sea becomes her friend, close, intimate, sensuous Chapter 11: *this section we see a bit of Edna’s rebellious nature *her husband commands her and Edna says “NO!” Chapter 17: *we see yet another confrontation between M&M Pontellier, more marital problems *I think we also begin to see ore hatred and violence under the surface of her husband *we also see another problem, Tuesday was to be the “calling” day and Edna wasn’t prepared for the callers, she realizes that she no longer cares to do the things that her husband wants her to Chapter 24: *Edna’s father comes for a visit *he also portrays that the females should submit to the males *males are dominant?

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