The Awakening by Kate Chopin contradicts the popular nineteenth century image of the ideal southern woman as the main character, Edna Pontellier, gradually realizes her dissatisfaction with her life and discovers she was meant to live for something more. This kind of thinking was unheard of during this time period, and the novel soon raised significant controversy and was “banned from the [libraries’] shelves in response to negative and damning reviews” (Dyer 19). The novel redefines femininity by showing that women do not have to be limited by domesticity or submission.
At the beginning of the novel, it is obvious that Edna’s marriage to Léonce is not entirely stable. Like every other woman during this time, she is seen as inferior to him. According to Carol Lasser and Stacey M. Robertson, “Female subordination [was] demanded in marriage, [and] the traditional rights conferred on wives to demand support and maintenance, and the ways in which a single woman might hold independent property and contract as an individual, are known as the feme sole” (4). Léonce pays little attention to Edna and constantly ridicules her for her mistakes: “He reproached his wife with her in attention, her habitual neglect of the children” (Chopin 7). Eventually, Edna grows tired of being humiliated by her husband and obeying his every command. This, combined with her newly-found love for her best friend and confidant, Robert Lebrun, gradually drives Edna Pontellier to completely rethink her life and defy her social rules that came along with, not only womanhood, but with the aristocracy as well. For example, one Tuesday, Edna refuses to participate in the social tradition of staying home to “greet” people and accept cards from friends and acquaintanc...
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...grets. According to Anne Firor Scott, “many women assumed that if they were unhappy or discontented in the ‘sphere to which God had appointed them’ it must be their own fault and that by renewed effort they could do better” (11-12).
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: Avon, 1972. Print.
Dyer, Joyce. "Critical Reception." The Awakening: A Novel of Beginnings. New York: Twayne, 1988. 18-29. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
Farnham, Christie. The Education of the Southern Belle: Higher Education and Student Socialization in the Antebellum South. New York: New York UP, 1994. 39-43. Print.
Lasser, Carol, and Stacey M. Robertson. Antebellum Women: Private, Public, Partisan. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010. 1-21. Print.
Scott, Anne Firor. The Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics, 1830-1930. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1995. 4-79. Print.
Throughout Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, the main protagonist Edna Pontellier, ventures through a journey of self-discovery and reinvention. Mrs.Pontellier is a mother and wife who begins to crave more from life, than her assigned societal roles. She encounters two opposite versions of herself, that leads her to question who she is and who she aims to be. Mrs. Pontellier’s journey depicts the struggle of overcoming the scrutiny women face, when denying the ideals set for them to abide. Most importantly the end of the novel depicts Mrs.Pontellier as committing suicide, as a result of her ongoing internal
Sklar, Kathryn Kish. “Hull House in the 1890’s: A Community of Women Reformers.” In Women and Power in American History, 3rd edition, edited by Kathryn Kish Skylar and
Anna Julia Cooper’s, Womanhood a Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress, an excerpt from A Voice from the South, discusses the state of race and gender in America with an emphasis on African American women of the south. She contributes a number of things to the destitute state African American woman became accustom to and believe education and elevation of the black woman would change not only the state of the African American community but the nation as well. Cooper’s analysis is based around three concepts, the merging of the Barbaric with Christianity, the Feudal system, and the regeneration of the black woman.
Eggleston, Larry G. Women in the Civil War. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2003. Print.
Kate Chopin’s The Awakening takes place in the late 19th century, in Grande Isle off the coast of Louisiana. The author writes about the main character, Edna Pontellier, to express her empowering quality of life. Edna is a working housewife,and yearns for social freedom. On a quest of self discovery, Edna meets Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, falls in and out of love,and eventually ends up taking her own life. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening shows how the main character Edna Pontellier has been trapped for so many years and has no freedom, yet Edna finally “awakens” after so long to her own power and her ability to be free.
When Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" was published at the end of the 19th Century, many reviewers took issue with what they perceived to be the author's defiance of Victorian proprieties, but it is this very defiance with which has been responsible for the revival in the interest of the novel today. This factor is borne out by Chopin's own words throughout her Preface -- where she indicates that women were not recipients of equal treatment. (Chopin, Preface ) Edna takes her own life at the book's end, not because of remorse over having committed adultery but because she can no longer struggle against the social conventions which deny her fulfillment as a person and as a woman. Like Kate Chopin herself, Edna is an artist and a woman of sensitivity who believes that her identity as a woman involves more than being a wife and mother. It is this very type of independent thinking which was viewed as heretical in a society which sought to deny women any meaningful participation.
Yellin, Jean Fagan, and John C. Horne. The Abolitionist sisterhood: women's political culture in Antebellum America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994.
Skemp, Sheila. Book Review: Mere Equals: The Paradox of Educated Women In The Early American Republic. Vol. 33. (Philadelphia Pa: Journal of the Early Republic, 2013), 571-574.
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin seems to fit neatly into twentieth century ideals. Chopin addresses psychological issues that must have been difficult for people of the late nineteenth century to grasp. Just as Edna died a premature death, Chopin's book died too. The rejection of this book, at the time, ironically demonstrates the pressure many women must have felt to conform to society. Chopin shows the reader, through Edna Pontellier, that society restricts women the right to individuality. This restriction by society can be seen in the clothing Victorian women wore during the time.
Christopher, J. Political Culture and Secession in Mississippi: Masculinity, Honor, and the Antiparty Tradition, 1830–1860. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
The.. Eggleston, Larry. A. Women in the Civil War? North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2003. Print. The.. Schwartz,
National Women’s History Museum, (2007), Women’s Changing Roles as Citizens of a New Republic, retrieved from: http://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/education/1700s_2.htm
Ford, Lacy K. A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction. New York City: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2005. Print.
The most prevalent and obvious gender issue present in the novella was that Edna challenged cultural norms and broke societal expectations in an attempt to define herself. Editors agree, “Edna Pontellier flouts social convention on almost every page…Edna consistently disregards her ‘duties’ to her husband, her children, and her ‘station’ in life” (Culley 120). Due to this, she did not uphold what was expected of her because she was trying to be superior, and women were expected to be subordinate to men. During that time, the women were viewed as possessions that men controlled. It was the woman’s job to clean the house, cook the meals, and take care of the children, yet Edna did none of these things. Her lifestyle was much different. She refused to listen to her husband as time progressed and continually pushed the boundaries of her role. For example, during that time period “the wife was bound to live with her husban...
As the antebellum South approached the end of the white man’s absolute reign, masculine anxiety became a recurring theme within its literature. Across the nation, slavery had become a central debate, yet the future of the institution was no clearer than it had ever been before (Whalen 111). Similarly, the role of women was becoming increasingly unstable. This not only gave a voice to the experience of a select few, but also loosened the constraints limiting them to the private sphere (Cantalupo 49). The complete control that white men had over every other group in America was becoming increasingly precarious causing a spike in tension for those who inhabited the South. Residing here and reflecting this growing anxiety was one of the nation’s