A feminist frameworkĬhopin problematizes traditional roles and expectations for men and women by illustrating the dilemmas that arise when one troubles the waters by behaving in non-conformist ways. The dilemma of how to mother her children appropriately, with the risk of subjecting them to the public shame she brings upon herself, seems to be the decisive factor. None of these minor outrages, even the collapse of her marriage, were Léonce to let her go, would necessarily have precipitated her suicide. Simultaneously, she witnesses the growth of her own spiritual life: “There was with her a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual.” She refuses to attend a family wedding and remembers her own as an “accident,” a revolt against her father and sister’s wishes. Back in New Orleans, she stops holding her Tuesday evening “at-homes ” she stomps on her wedding ring and she moves out of her house into a smaller space of her own. He turns Edna into a thing or a commodity through his perception of her and his desire to control her actions.Īcting rebellious, Edna defies social convention in various ways. Léonce, her well-respected, businessman husband, clearly objectifies Edna when she returns from a sunny beach day: “You are burnt beyond recognition,” added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property. Marriage and motherhood constitute unsupportable restrictions for Edna. Vacationing at Grand Isle on the Gulf of Mexico, she undergoes life-changing transformations. The restrictions of marriage and motherhoodĮdna’s first depicted episode of awakening, literally, comes at the expense of a good night’s sleep, and leaves her crying and frustrated but unable to articulate the source of her emotional response to a callous, if affectionate, husband.įrom this powerless starting point, Edna will experience a series of discoveries about her world and her self that inspire her to experiment and explore, but leave her ultimately defeated. The author died virtually forgotten, yet The Awakening has been rediscovered and holds a secure and prominent position as a watershed text in U.S. Many times, we find Edna Pontellier awake in situations that signify more metaphorical awakenings to new knowledge and sensual experience.Ĭonsequently, Chopin’s work came under immediate attack when published and was banned from bookstores and libraries. Following is Professor Sarah Wyman’s analysis of The Awakening by Kate Chopin, an 1899 novella telling the story of a young mother who undergoes a dramatic period of change as she “awakens” to the restrictions of her traditional societal role and to her full potential as a woman.