Classics for Your Collection:

goo.gl/U80LCr

---------

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Edna Pontellier is an obedient wife and mother vacationing at Grand Isle with her family.

Edna becomes close to a young man named Robert Lebrun, a charming, earnest young man who actively seeks Edna's attention and affections. and one of the two sons of an elderly French woman who run the resort where Edna and her family vacationing at.

Robert senses the doomed nature of such a relationship and flees to Mexico under the guise of pursuing a nameless business venture.

Edna is lonely without his companionship, but shortly after her return to New Orleans (where she usually lives with her family), she picks up the male equivalent of a mistress. Although she does not love Alcee Arobin, he awakens various sexual passions within her.

The narrative focus moves to Edna's shifting emotions as she reconciles her maternal duties with her desire for social freedom and to be with Robert.

When Kate Chopin's 1899 novel The Awakening, originally titled A Solitary Soul, was first released, it evoked a storm of controversy. Though it was not actually banned, it received public censure across the United States.

It was considered immoral and subversive, dangerous to the moral well-being of "innocent" women and too frank in its depiction of female desires and physical needs. It challenged the existing gender roles and created a hitherto unrecognized space for a woman's requirement for self-fulfillment, something which was seen as inflammatory and ruinous to society in general.

Main characters

Edna Pontellier - a respectable Presbyterian from Kentucky, living in Creole society in Louisiana. She rebels against conventional expectations and discovers an identity independent from her role as a wife and mother.

Léonce Pontellier - Edna's husband, a successful businessman who is unaware of his wife's unhappiness.

Mademoiselle Reisz - Her character symbolizes what Edna could have been if she had grown old and had been independent from her family. Despite viewing Reisz as disagreeable, Edna sees her as an inspiration to her own "awakening."

Madame Adèle Ratignolle - Edna's friend, who represents the perfect 19th-century woman, as she is totally devoted to her husband and children.

Alcée Arobin - known for seducing married women and pursues a short-lived affair with Edna, satisfying her while her husband is away.

Robert Lebrun - has a history of charming women he cannot have but finds something different with Edna and falls in love. Robert's flirting with Edna catalyzes her "awakening," and she sees in him what has been missing in her marriage.

Today The Awakening is hailed as an early and a vivid portrayal of female independence, besides being itself a fascinating read.

Facts and Trivia:

1. In the penultimate episode of the first season of HBO's Treme, Creighton (played by John Goodman) assigns Kate Chopin's The Awakening to his freshmen and warns them:

"I want you to take your time with it," he cautions. "Pay attention to the language itself. The ideas. Don't think in terms of a beginning and an end. Because unlike some plot-driven entertainments, there is no closure in real life. Not really."

2. The Awakening has been adapted into two movies, and PBS made a documentary about Chopin's life in 1999.

Scroll Up and Get Your Copy!
About the Author:

Kate Chopin, born Katherine O'Flaherty (February 8, 1850 - August 22, 1904), was a U.S. author of short stories and novels. She is now considered by some to have been a forerunner of the feminist authors of the 20th century of Southern or Catholic background, such as Zelda Fitzgerald.

Young Chopin spent a lot of time in the attic reading such masters as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and the Brontës.

She got married to Oscar Chopin when she was 20 and had six children.

Within a decade of her death, Chopin was widely recognized as one of the leading writers of her time. In 1915, Fred Lewis Pattee wrote, "some of [Chopin's] work is equal to the best that has been produced in France or even in America. She displayed what may be described as a native aptitude for narration amounting almost to genius.

Many of Chopin's works are set in Louisiana and often describe the lush natural settings and the mix of cultures that define the region.

The idea of women's individual and sexual independence was not regarded as absurd and scandalous notions in the years that followed her demise. Her writings were posthumously recognized and applauded for its bold content.