Advanced textual analyses: the North American short story

Tutor: Dr. Codrua Goa

Programme: MA American Studies, Year 1, 2nd sem.

The Awakening

by

Kate Chopin

Marcel Dragodan

The Awakening

Characters :
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

Edna Pontellier
Robert Lebrun
Lonce Pontellier
Alce Arobin
Adle (Madame) Ratignolle
Mademoiselle Reisz

The Awakening is one of the most famous American novels. It is also the most
controversial and scandalous work of Kate Chopin.
This novel deals with mental , emotional and sexual aweakening of Edna
Pontellier. She is the mother of two sons and wife of one Creole businessman.
Edna Pontellier is the protagonist of this novel. She finds herself dissatisfied with
her marriage. She wants to be free , to try other things , to become independent.
Edna begins to act like a child , to watch the world with new perspective and
forgetting the old behavior of her. She discovered her own identity and she wants
to be emotionally and sexually satisfied.
The story opens with the scene of vacation island Grand Isle , which in this
particular summer is inhabited almost solely by Creole families from the city of
New Orleans. Mr. Pontellier is just visiting the island to be with his family for the
weekend , thus not ready to plunge into the holiday spirit , burying himself in the
day-old newspaper , irritated by the noise of the birds and the delay of newspaper
delivery caused by the physical distance from the city. Grand Isle is set as a
community of wives and children , an extremely private sphere.
In Lonce `s home sphere , his wife is indeed a valuable piece of personal property
for which excessive exposure to the sun can be a damage. He has the responsibility

to his wife just as to other items of his possession.At the beginning of the novel ,
Edna is living a nice and peacefully life in marriage to Leonce. Edna has always
been a romantic person. When she got married she couldn`t be romantic any more.
With the romantic life was over and real life with responsabilities has begun . She
expected that her dreams of romance will disappear with her youth.
Edna become independent woman but tragically her awekenings isolate her from
others. She doesnt love her husband Leonce Pontellier.
The contact outside of marriage is a taboo and people who makes adultery are
considered criminals. The woman in that society , in 19th century , was seen as a
slave , the man`s property . The women didnt had normal civil rights.
Edna had an sexual affair with Alce Arobin. With him she had the biggest sexual
satisfaction. Its interesting that she was not in love with him.
Robert Lebrun was the man that she truly loved. He also was interested in her . He
liked her personality but he wasn`t strong enough to declare his love officialy. He
was not man enough. He was shocked on Edna`s suggestion that they will need to
live togheter like inloved couple , not like man and wife. Edna realizes that Robert
will not treat her any different than Leonce so she needs to fulfil her role as a
mother. At the end she commits suicide in the sea.
Edna`s phase of sleeping is short one. Her sleeping is a metaphor and she accepts
her position in society.She is like a bird in a cage.
Lonce Pontellier represents Edna`s sleeping phase. Their marriage is a symbol for
social restrictions.
Adle (Madame) Ratignolle is devoted to her husband and children. She accepts
her role in society and she adores her husband .
In sleeping phase Edna couldnt swim. She was trying all summer to learn to swim
but without success .
In 7th Chapter Edna makes first step from sleeping to a phase of dreaming when
she walks to the beach with Adle (Madame) Ratignolle and starts talking about
her life. The male character in Edna`s dream is Robert. Robert is also like other

men , he considers women to be the property of men but still he awakens sexual
desires in Edna.
Finally he decides to leave her with the note where he wrote :
I love you. Good-Bye because I love you.
Edna can be indepent how much she wants but still she cannot run from the role as
a mother. She feels that she cannot be fully independent because she is a mother.
The Awakening is a bold study of woman`s life in that it tries to incorporate the
aspect of sexuality in the characterization of a woman in the age when the sexual
drive was considered strictly a male trait and a fatal blotch when found it woman.
Edna`s sexual awakening , on one hand , works as force that detaches her from her
own marriage and enables her to see the structural limitations forced upon woman
as wife and mother.The most important symbol in this novel is Edna`s drowning.
Finaly she can swim without fear and she can experience a total freedom. She
removed all her clothes and started to swim without looking back and thinking of
the blue-grass meadow. She rembered about her childhood and finaly realizes that
she cannot swim back to the shore.
Death is death , but one can attempt at a positive interpretation of her suicide. Edna
is twice dead in her married life as a wife and mother. By swimming out in the
Gulf , where her long-suppressed sexuality reemerged , and where eternal
satisfaction is promised by the sensuous waves , she is finally born.

Conclusion

In The Awakening , love , marriage and sexuality are connected with the
problem of female identity.
My opinion is that Kate Chopin`s The Awakening is a masterpiece of female
philosophy.The women in that time were men`s possessions and their main
function was to give birth to children. The women didn`t deserve some kind of
treatement. Nowadays is unacceptable that kind of behavior .

All the women in the world have a desire to be free , to be equal with men.
Nowadays is interesting that in some religions , muslim for example is still
practicing this intolerance. Their women don`t have a normal life , they are realy
men`s property and you cannot do anything to stop this because that is their
religion.