The Awakening by Kate Chopin | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Описание: The Awakening is a feminist fiction novel that was published in the year 1899. The novel depicts the story of Edna Pontellier, a married wife and a mother who feels suffocated in her married life and tries to attain freedom. The novel was against the moral norms of victorian society and hence it was highly criticized after its publication. However, with the changing social norms, the novel gained popularity after the death of Kate Chopin and is considered a prototype of feminist literature. The meaning of the title and the message of the novel is that the central character Edna succeeds in rediscovering herself, independent of her familial identity and role as a mother and wife as she awakens.

The novel suggests the strong influence of French writer Guy de Maupassant and is considered as an example of naturalism or nineteenth-century literary realism.

The story is about the struggle of a woman seeking independence. She is at struggle against societal and natural norms that force her to accept the identity of a woman recognized by her husband, and children. She loves her sons but she says that she can give her money and life for her kids, but she cannot sacrifice herself, her freedom to them. Reisz and Adele are the two epitomes that Edna may follow. While she gets sexual and emotional fulfillment if she chooses to be like Adele, she will have to accept the societal norms and set up defined for a domestic woman. On the other hand, if she chooses to lead an artistic life like that of Reisz, she will have to compromise her sexual self which she is not ready to do as she likes her sexual self. Edna decides to act like a man. She begins her career and starts making money. She engages in a short-termed affair with Alcee while she still loves Robert and is the wife of Leonce. She realizes that while it is easy for a man to do so, it is not that easy for a woman.

Edna desires to enjoy the freedom that a man easily attains while remaining a female. She loves her feminine sexuality and sensuality, yet wants to be independent of the responsibilities of being a woman that she thinks society forces on her. As she realizes that not only societal rules, norms, and expectations, but nature itself forces her to be a woman defined by their husband and children, she opts to end herself.

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