Chopin, Kate: 1851 - 1904
The Awakening, 1899 - Information about the Book
- General Information
- One of the central themes of the novel is that of self-ownership. Also called bodily autonomy, self-ownership was a key tenet of 19th-century feminism. It signified a woman's right to have control over her own body and identity.
- The novel is a commentary on the restraints faced by women at the turn of the century. Edna is expected to play dead and when she refuses, she has no option but to kill herself. She is opposed to characters like Madame Ratignolle whose affection for her children is renowned, as is her perfect female passivity. It is worth noting that Edna does not face any explicit oppression. She is merely expected to run the house, care for the children and do her best to please her husband. Nevertheless, she finds the role unbearable. She can not give her life, her identity, to others. It is better to die.
Margaret Culley
Excerpted, with permission, from the Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database at New York University School of Medicine, © New York University. - Information from Wikipedia
- Facts
- Summaries and Analyses of chapters Study Guide The Awakening
- Characters
- Character Analysis
- How to Pronounce the Characters’ Names
- The Ending
- The Ending. "There’s no way around the fact Edna kills herself – we may not see the final scene but Chopin makes it clear Edna can’t go back to the shore." May 27, 2015
- Critics differ on the ending. "Edna’s inexplicable suicide, which seems to stem from her negative attitude toward life, is in reality a flight from sexual experience".
- Ways of Interpreting Edna's Suicide
- Edna’s suicide
- Symbols
- Reviews
- Review by Avil Beckford. "In the scheme of things, The Awakening by Kate Chopin is tame in comparison to works such as Lady Chatterley’s Lover."
- Review. "There are a series of awakenings that happen to Edna as she pushes her boundaries of being a woman in nineteenth-century respectable society." By Vipula, a culture blogger from Los Angeles, California. March 3, 2019.
- Articles
- Kate Chopin, A Re-Awakening: Transcript of a PBS Program. "On the eve of the 20th century, Kate Chopin confronted the fundamental dilemma of what it meant to be a woman." June 23, 1999
- A Quintessence Of Early Feminist Fiction. "It is a story revolving around personal and sexual freedom for women." Nalini Sharma; June 14, 2016
- A novel that has earned its place in literary history. The Irish Times; April 17, 2021
- Gender and Literary Valorization. Sarah M. Corse, University of Virginia; 2002
- Edna Pontellier marks a departure from the female characters of earlier nineteenth-century American novels: "Contemporaries were shocked by her depiction of a woman with active sexual desires, who dares to leave her husband and have an affair." Emma Jones; April 2003
- Interviews with David Chopin, Kate's grandson and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Emory University
- Whiteness in "The Awakening." Claire Hurley, University of Kent