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The Awakening is a novel by Kate Chopin. She began writing the novel in 1897, and finished it in January 1898. It was first published by Herbert S. Stone & Company of Chicago in April 1889.

The Awakening was a controversial novel due to the subject matter. Among it’s detractors was well known author Willa Cather, who called it trite and sordid. Others labeled it morbid, vulgar, and disagreeable.

They meet on Grand Isle, a vacation resort run by his mother. Edna is there with her sons, and on weekends, her adoring husband.

Summer flirtations are commonplace for Robert. When his relationship with Edna deepens, he flees to Mexico on the pretext of business.

The Awakening is a novel about a woman’s journey: away from her traditional upbringing and towards her own personal needs. Edna Pontellier, an unsatisfied married woman, finds love with Robert Lebrun.

The Novel: The AwakeningThe Novel: The Awakening

Greatly saddened, Edna returns to her home in New Orleans. Her husband, Léonce, notices her growing apathy.

Edna’s dissatisfaction with her life deepens, and she sends her sons to visit their grandmother in the country.

She starts socializing with Mrs. Highcamp, a woman of known loose morals, and her friend Alcée Arobin.

Edna resists her old society life, and turns to her art as solace. She seeks out friends from Grand Isle, hoping to hear word of Robert.

She comes upon Mademoiselle Reisz, who corresponds with Robert. Edna becomes a frequent visitor to the pianist. She reads his letters, and dreams of being together again.

Léonce leaves to attend to business in New York, Edna refuses to go with him.

Esplanade St, The Pontellier’s New Orlean residence

Edna decides to move out of the family home and into a small cottage nearby. She calls it the “pigeon house”. She plans to support herself through her painting.

While longing for Robert, Edna begins an affair with Alcée. Although her physical needs are met, she is still unhappy.

On a visit to Mlle. Reisz, Edna finds that Robert has returned to New Orleans.

She is overcome with happiness, believing they can start a life together.

Robert returns with her to the pigeon house, and they rekindle their romance. Although he is concerned with her friendship with Alcée Arobin, they begin to plan a future together.

Somewhat inconveniently, Edna is called away to the side of her friend, Madame Ratignolle, to assist with her confinement.

While attending to her friend, Edna experiences an epiphany. She realizes that she does love her sons. She does not want to disgrace them by living a life of casual affairs, like Mrs. Highcamp.

She also recognizes that she is ultimately selfish, and that her needs will always come before her children’s.

She returns to the pigeon house to find that Robert has left. He has chosen to abandon their love rather than ruin their good names.

Edna returns to Grand Isle, where their romance began.

As she walks on the beach, the water beckons to her. She swims, thinking of her life, family, and friends, until she is unable to make it back to shore.

Catherine O’Flaherty was born Feb 8, 1850, in St Louis Missouri to Thomas and Eliza O’ Flaherty. Due to her mother’s background she grew up speaking French and English in the home. She considered herself French-American. Her embrace of the French culture is evident in many of her novels.

Kate’s father died in 1885 and her great-grandmother, who encouraged her love of her French heritage, died in 1863.

Kate grew up in St. Louis, a divided city that supported both the Union and the Confederacy. She grew up with slavery as part of her daily life.

Kate kept a journal of sorts, a book of essays , poems and diary entries written from 1867 to1870. In 1869, she wrote her first story, “Emancipation: A Life Fable”.

The Author: Kate ChopinThe Author: Kate Chopin

Kate married Oscar Chopin of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana on June 9,1870. After a honeymoon in Europe they settled in New Orleans where Oscar established a business.

Kate Chopin with sons: Fred, George, Jean, Oscar, 1877

Oscar Chopin, 1870

Kate gave birth to her first son, Jean Baptiste, on May 22, 1871.

More children soon followed. Oscar Charles was born September 24, 1873. George Francis, born October 28, 1874. Frederick, born January 26, 1876. Felix Andrew, born January 8, 1878. Marie Laïza (Lélia), born December 31, 1879.

Oscar Chopin died December 10, 1882 from malaria.

The family moved to Cloutierville, LA in 1879 where Oscar purchased a general store.

Although she never remarried, Kate enjoyed a romance with Albert Sampite from 1883 to 1884. When the relationship failed, Kate moved back to St. Louis.

A family friend, Dr. Frederick Kolbenheyer, encouraged her to continue writing.

Kate was influenced by Guy De Maupassant, and other French and American writers.

She also involved herself in St. Louis literary and cultural circles.

Her first novel, At Fault, was published in 1890.

Over the next several years, Kate wrote prolifically.

Her novels include: “A No Account Creole”“Beyond the Bayou”“Ripe Figs”“The Story of an Hour”“At the ‘Cadian Ball”“A Matter of Prejudice

“Athénaïse”“Charlie”

Kate Chopin died on August 22, 1904 of a brain hemorrhage.

Her last publication, “Polly”, appeared in Youth’s Companion on July 3, 1902.

Historical Reference Historical Reference

Kate Chopin wrote primarily about things she was familiar with: life in the South and French-American culture.

In “The Awakening”, Kate incorporated both of those elements, and also the idea that a woman could be a separate entity from her husband. Her idea that a woman’s needs were important was somewhat radical. Women were not considered to be independent, and women’s rights were still being fought for.

Contemporary ReviewContemporary Review“Books and Magazines”, Pittsburgh Leader, July 8, 1899 Signed “Sibert” (Willa Cather)

A Creole Bovary is this little novel of Miss Chopin's. Not that the heroine is a Creole exactly, or that Miss Chopin is a Flaubert--save the mark!--but the theme is similar to that which occupied Flaubert. There was, indeed, no need that a second Madame Bovary should be written, but an author's choice of themes is frequently as inexplicable as his choice of a wife. It is governed by some innate temperamental bias that cannot be diagrammed. This is particularly so in women who write, and I shall not attempt to say why Miss Chopin has devoted so exquisite and sensitive, well-governed a style to so trite and sordid a theme. She writes much better than it is ever given to most people to write, and hers is a genuinely literary style; of no great elegance or solidity; but light, flexible, subtle, and capable of producing telling effects directly and simply. The story she has to tell in the present instance is new neither in matter nor treatment. Edna Pontellier, a Kentucky girl, who, like Emma Bovarv, had been in love with innumerable dream heroes before she was out of short skirts, married Leonce Pontellier as a sort of reaction from a vague and visionary passion for a tragedian whose unresponsive picture she used to kiss. She acquired the habit of liking her husband in time, and even of liking her children. Though we are not justified in presuming that she ever threw articles from her dressing table at them, as the charming Emma had a winsome habit of doing. We are told that "she would sometimes gather them passionately to her heart; she would sometimes forget them." At a Creole watering place, which is admirably and deftly sketched by Miss Chopin, Edna met Robert Lebrun, son of the landlady, who dreamed of a fortune awaiting him in Mexico while he occupied a petty clerical position in New Orleans. Robert made it his business to be agreeable to his mother's boarders, and Edna, not being a Creole, much against his wish and will, took him seriously. . . . The lover of course disappointed her, was a coward and ran away from his responsibilities before they began. He was afraid to begin a chapter with so serious and limited a woman. She remembered the sea where she had first met Robert. Perhaps from the same motive which threw Anna Karenina under the engine wheels, she threw herself into the sea, swam until she was tired and then let go. . . .   

    Edna Pontellier and Emma Bovary are studies in the same feminine type; one a finished and complete portrayal, the other a hasty sketch, but the theme is essentially the same. Both women belong to a class, not large, but forever clamoring in our ears, that demands more romance out of life than God put into it. Mr. G. Bernard Shaw would say that they are the victims of the over- idealization of love. They are the spoil of the poets, the Iphigenias of sentiment. The unfortunate feature of their disease is that it attacks only women of brains, at least of rudimentary brains, but whose development is one-sided; women of strong and fine intuitions, but without the faculty of observation, comparison, reasoning about things. Probably, for emotional people, the most convenient thing about being able to think is that it occasionally gives them a rest from feeling. Now with women of the Bovary type, this relaxation and recreation is impossible. They are not critics of life, but, in the most personal sense, partakers of life. They receive impressions through the fancy. With them everything begins with fancy, and passions rise in the brain rather than in the blood, the poor, neglected, limited one-sided brain that might do so much better things than badgering itself into frantic endeavors to love. For these are the people who pay with their blood for the fine ideals of the poets, as Marie Delclasse paid for Dumas' great creation, Marguerite Gauthier. These people really expect the passion of love to fill and gratify every need of life, whereas nature only intended that it should meet one of many demands. They insist upon making it stand for all the emotional pleasures of life and art; expecting an individual and self-limited passion to yield infinite variety, pleasure, and distraction, to contribute to their lives what the arts and the pleasurable exercise of the intellect gives to less limited and less intense idealists. So this passion, when set up against Shakespeare, Balzac, Wagner, Raphael, fails them. They have staked everything on one hand, and they lose. They have driven the blood until it will drive no further, they have played their nerves up to the point where any relaxation short of absolute annihilation is impossible. Every idealist abuses his nerves, and every sentimentalist brutally abuses them. And in the end, the nerves get even. Nobody ever cheats them, really. Then "the awakening" comes. Sometimes it comes in the form of arsenic, as it came to Emma Bovary, sometimes it is carbolic acid taken covertly in the police station, a goal to which unbalanced idealism not infrequently leads. Edna Pontellier, fanciful and romantic to the last, chose the sea on a summer night and went down with the sound of her first lover's spurs in her ears, and the scent of pinks about her. And next time I hope that Miss Chopin will devote that flexible iridescent style of hers to a better cause.

Group ReviewGroup ReviewThe Awakening is a work of fiction centered around a woman named Edna Pontellier and her struggles to deal with the role of a woman in 1890’s America. The story takes place in the same time period as Kate Chopin’s life and it seems to reflect the attitude of 19th century where men and woman had certain defining roles and the struggles of women not able to truly express themselves. The central character Edna Pontellier is a married mother of two sons. Her awakening is her realization of how her life could have been like if she didn’t conform to societie’s norms. It is also her discovery of her independence. This book was ahead of its time considering the issues it dealt with such as infidelity and the responsibilities of the woman in a family and society. Especially considering the time and place in which it was published. It was a time when women were supposed to be chase and conservative. The story took place in Louisiana where women were deemed incompetent to make a contract and were basically their husbands property. I personally did not like the book. It wasn’t interesting or entertaining to me. The fact that there was French in it made it less appealing to me. I also didn’t like how the protagonist, Edna put herself above her family.

Group RatingGroup Rating

We gave this book a solid

The group agreed that while some may like this story, we didn’t. We felt that reading it was time we could have better spent sleeping.

Edna was just so unlikable that none of us were sad that she drowned. And that’s a real tragedy….

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. N.p.: Barnes & Nobles, Inc., 1997. Illustrations Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. N.p.: Barnes & Nobles, Inc., 1997. Illustrations copyright 1997 by John Collier. Acknowledgements for all other copyrighted copyright 1997 by John Collier. Acknowledgements for all other copyrighted material appear at the opening of each individual essay or work. material appear at the opening of each individual essay or work.

"The Kate Chopin International Society." KateChopin.org. 8 Dec. 2008 "The Kate Chopin International Society." KateChopin.org. 8 Dec. 2008

<http://www.katechopin.org/biography.shtml>. <http://www.katechopin.org/biography.shtml>.

"Cultural Contexts: Kate Chopin Revealed in Her Own Words ." "Cultural Contexts: Kate Chopin Revealed in Her Own Words ."

BedfordStMartins.com. 2 Dec. 2008 BedfordStMartins.com. 2 Dec. 2008 <http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/Virtualit/fiction/cultural.asp?e=2b>. <http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/Virtualit/fiction/cultural.asp?e=2b>.

"Cloutierville." CaneRiverHeritage.org. 8 Dec. 2008 "Cloutierville." CaneRiverHeritage.org. 8 Dec. 2008

<http://www.caneriverheritage.org/main_file.php/pointsofinterest.php/78/>.<http://www.caneriverheritage.org/main_file.php/pointsofinterest.php/78/>.

English. Dept. home page. SwissEduc. 2 Dec. 2008 <http://www.swisseduc.ch/ English. Dept. home page. SwissEduc. 2 Dec. 2008 <http://www.swisseduc.ch/

english/readinglist/chopin_kate/index.html>. english/readinglist/chopin_kate/index.html>.

"The Mystery of Love: As Seen in Kate Chopin's 'A Story of an Hour.'" "The Mystery of Love: As Seen in Kate Chopin's 'A Story of an Hour.'"

Associated Content. 8 Dec. 2008 <http://www.associatedcontent.com/ Associated Content. 8 Dec. 2008 <http://www.associatedcontent.com/

article/223908/the_mystery_of_love_as_seen_in_kate.html?cat=38>. article/223908/the_mystery_of_love_as_seen_in_kate.html?cat=38>.

Koloski, Bernard. Katechopin.org Kate Chopin International Society. 8 Dec Koloski, Bernard. Katechopin.org Kate Chopin International Society. 8 Dec 2008 http://www.katechopin.org/biography.shtml2008 http://www.katechopin.org/biography.shtml

Yagmin, James. Lieberman, David. BookRags.com 1999 8 Dec 2008 Yagmin, James. Lieberman, David. BookRags.com 1999 8 Dec 2008 http://www.bookrags.com/notes/awa/CHR.htmhttp://www.bookrags.com/notes/awa/CHR.htm

Works CitedWorks Cited

Kate Chopin

• Born February 8, 1850 in St Louis Missouri as Catherine O’Flaherty

• Married Oscar Chopin of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.

• Mothered six children from 1873 to 1879

• Husband Oscar died December 10, 1882 from malaria

• Had a romance with Albert Sampite from 1883 to 1884 which failed

• Kate was influenced by Guy De Maupassant and other French and American writers

• Her first novel, At Fault was published in 1890. Continued to write prolifically the next several years. Other works include “The Storm”, “The Story of an Hour”, “Desiree’s Baby,” “Polly,” to name a few

• Died on August 22, 1904 of a brain hemorrhage

Synopsis of Synopsis of PresentationPresentation

Historical Reference

• Kate Chopin wrote primarily about things she was familiar with: life inthe South and French-American culture

• In “The Awakening”, Kate incorporated both of those elements,

and also the idea that a woman could be a separate entity from her husband.

• Her idea that a woman’s needs were important was somewhat radical.

• Women were not considered to be independent, and women’s rights were still being fought for.

Synopsis of Synopsis of PresentationPresentation

The Awakening

• Published in 1889

• It was a controversial novel due to the subject matter

• Received unfavorable reviews, labeled as morbid, vulgar, and disagreeable

• Chopin’s fiction was mostly forgotten after her death until scholars and readers set in motion a Kate Chopin revival in the 1950’s

Synopsis of Synopsis of PresentationPresentation

Characters

• Edna Pontellier: Main character who awakens to a new life as she discovers her independence

• Leonce Pontellier: Edna’s wealthy, old fashioned husband. Shows frustration towards her if she behaves outside societal norms

• Robert Lebrun: Younger man whom Edna falls in love with and vice versa

• Adele Ratignolle: the epitome of what a woman is expected to be during this time as a wife and mother of five

• Mademoiselle Reisz: an eccentric pianist who is a close friend of Robert Lebrun. She is the opposite of Madame Ratignolle. She is independent, carefree and single with no children.

• Alcee Arobin: a young gambling, womanizing businessman who seduces Edna.

Synopsis of Synopsis of PresentationPresentation

Plot Summary

• A novel about a woman’s journey: away from her traditional upbringing and towards her own personal needs

• Edna Pontellier, an unsatisfied married woman finds love with Robert Lebrun

• When their relationship deepens Robert flees to Mexico on pretense of business

• Edna is saddened by this and Leonce notices her apathy

• Edna turns to art as solace

• She becomes a frequent visitor to Mademoiselle Reisz, who corresponds with Robert

• Leonce leaves to attend to business in New York, Edna refuses to go and then sends her sons to their grandmother

Synopsis of Synopsis of PresentationPresentation

• Edna starts socializing with Mrs. Highcamp, a woman of known loose morals and her friend Alcee Arobin

• She moves out of the family home and into a small cottage and plans to support herself through her painting

• While longing for Robert, Edna begins an affair with Alcee although she is still unhappy

• Edna discovers that Robert has returned and rekindles their romance. They start to plan their future

• Edna is called away to the side of her friend Madame Ratignolle to assist with her confinement.

• Suddenly she has an epiphany. She realizes that she loves her sons and does not want to disgrace them by having casual affairs, like Mrs Highcamp.

Synopsis of Synopsis of PresentationPresentation

• She also recognizes that she is ultimately selfish and that her needs will always come before her children’s

• She returns to the cottage to find Robert has left and he has chosen to abandon their love rather than ruin their good names

• Edna returns to Grand Isle where their romance began. • She walks into the water and swims, thinking of her life, family

and friends until she is unable to make it back to shore.

Synopsis of Synopsis of PresentationPresentation