This week we’ll look at The Awakening by Kate Chopin.
Historical Considerations
I want to situate the novella in time first.
To me, this novella is almost a cross between Madame Bovary and Mrs. Dalloway.
It is interesting that Madame Bovary is often considered to be the birth of modernism in literature (though in 1856, it was actually a few decades before modernism took hold). Mrs. Dalloway, on the other hand, in 1925, is almost the birth of postmodernism.
The Awakening is smack in the middle of these two novels being published in 1899.
All three of these works have female protagonists that feel trapped by their social and marital roles. All three women bravely defy these expectations and then have tragic consequences for doing so. Bovary focuses a lot more on the social aspects whereas Dalloway focuses very much on the internal state of the character.
Chopin writes in the middle of these two modes beautifully (though I’d classify the novella as realism rather than modernism or postmodernism).
I think if I had read this book in college, I wouldn’t have really gotten some of the paradoxical sentiments; it takes being married to understand these characters.
Marriage
Early on, Chopin establishes Edna Pontellier as happily married, except not quite.
It would have been a difficult matter for Mr. Pontellier to define his own satisfaction or any one else’s wherein his wife failed in her duty toward their children. It was something which he felt rather than perceived, and he never voiced the feeling without subsequent regret and ample atonement.
This is a brilliant way to put it. There’s nothing in particular that can be voiced that makes either dissatisfied or unhappy. It’s rather just a feeling. I think we’ve all been there.
Later Chopin makes it even more explicit.
The husband thinks to himself, I’ve done X, Y, and Z, why do I have to be the one to now do this other thing. And it’s sort of these little feelings of entitlement that can build up to something significant even though deep down neither are dissatisfied.
Both still love each other. I love how Chopin gets at that feeling through these little details.
Anyway, that’s what I referred to as a paradox before.
Globally, one wants to yell at the characters: you’re happy, you can’t even voice any complaints. Yet, internally, it is very easy to identify with these details Chopin drops in for feelings of inadequacy and dissatisfaction.
Plot and Theme
The Awakening‘s subject matter is quite a bit different from Bovary despite the plot parallels.
Emma Bovary seems to be having her affairs in an attempt to escape the vacuous bourgeois life in favor of romance and beauty.
In contrast, Edna Pontellier seems to have her affair in a broader struggle to establish an identity separate from “wife” and “mother.” It has a much more positive feminist message and has less to do with romance.
Though, of course, there is overlap in these two themes.
I also think Chopin is much more ambiguous in the messages we are to take away.
- How should we view our roles in family and society?
- How does one find oneself with all these structures imposing themselves?
- What is the meaning of Edna’s suicide?
These are all explored but no easy answers emerge, probably because there still aren’t easy answers.
Final Remarks
As usual, I have to spend some time talking about prose style. I thought there were moments of true brilliance. The sea is a prominent symbol throughout the novella, and some early descriptions are amazing.
The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.
The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.
Edna learns to swim as part of her awakening, and she views this private space in the sea as essential to her freedom.
This passage simultaneously is a description, a symbol, a revelation of Edna’s internal state, and a foreshadowing of the sensuous aspect of her awakening and eventual death.
That’s a lot to pack into three sentences, and Chopin does it with elegant prose style.
