Background information
- The Awakening is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899 and set in New Orleans as well as along the Louisiana coast. The book mostly centers around Edna Pontellier, a married middle age woman, and her struggle as she awakens to her individuality, sexual desire, and want for independence. This novel was one of the first American novels to discuss women independence with a feminist central theme. In its time, it was so controversial that The Awakening virtually ended Kate Chopin’s career as an author.
some overarching themes of the awakening
- IDENTITY: Throughout The Awakening, Edna Pontellier is constantly having an identity crisis. She struggles with labels as in "mother" and "wife" and "possession", and so, Edna seeks independence, not something most women in the late 19th century, Victorian, time period attempt at Edna "awakens" to find herself as a person with an individual identity, not that of her husband or of any men in the community but as her own person.
- FEMININITY: The most obvious theme to The Awakening would be the feminist theme. In the beginning of the novel, Edna is viewed as a possession of Leonce Pontellier, her husband. Yet through a romantic affair with Robert and later Alcee, Edna becomes her own person, wanting to be recognized as such. However, society still views Edna as a women, less than the men of the community. Therefore, she decides the only way to get out of this problem is suicide via drowning.
- MARRIAGE: From the very beginning of the book, marriage acts as an enormous obstacle to Edna being happy and fulfilled. She is stuck in a marriage with Leonce, a man whom she never shared any romantic feelings with and married out of a business transaction sort of deal. Then, by the end of the book, Edna has realized the disillusion marriage really is and that she doesn't want to be married to a man she doesn't really love.