"The Awakening"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Kate Chopin's novel, "The Awakening", providing a detailed description of the characters and plot. The paper presents the novel as a lyrical, poetic and tragic story. The two central characters, Adele and Edna, are examined and contrasted. The paper illustrates how the contrast between these two women offers a rich exploration of femininity in all its forms.

From the Paper:

""The Awakening", by Kate Chopin, is a story of the awakening of the senses of a 28-year-old woman, Edna Pontellier. She is awakened from the slumber of a staid, regimented, loveless marriage by sensuality in many forms: the novel is drenched in the sensual color of Creole society, the abundant sensuality and open freedom and power of nature, and the sensuality of women, both as sexual beings and as mothers. It is a lyrical, poetic story, and a tragic one, for though Edna awakens to the "delirium" of ecstatic experiences, she ends up committing adultery and then suicide. Her awakening from the slumber of southern femininity, of patriarchal convention, is real, but the forces she has unleashed are too great to handle. It is as if she has awakened forces that society itself cannot and will not allow. Ironically, Kate Chopin's book had the same impact on the society of the day. It was too powerful an evocation of a woman's sensuality, and was so widely criticized that this talented writer basically stopped writing."

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