The Awakening

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1899

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-9

Chapters 10-14

Chapters 15-19

Chapters 20-24

Chapters 25-29

Chapters 30-35

Chapters 36-39

Character Analysis

Themes

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Important Quotes

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Themes

Individuality Versus Social Order

Chopin wrote The Awakening at the close of the 19th century and Victorian era, and thus she had to fight against the assumptions of essentialism. At that time, there was a strict divide between the public and the private sphere. The public sphere was predominantly masculine, and its foundations were authority and control. The private sphere was associated primarily with modesty and morality. This divide led to a system of intricate rules that were expected to be followed by everyone, and especially by women. These laws of social behavior were mainly unwritten, yet they governed every aspect of life. There were predetermined sets of behavior for all social roles: single young people, married couples, mothers and fathers, as well as those who were widowed. Without a doubt, having a set of social norms is something that is typical of every society, but the rules that governed Victorian society, when the events of The Awakening take place, were especially strict.

From an early age, Edna Pontellier assumes that she must live according to these rules. At first, she follows a conventional pattern: she gets married, gives birth to two sons, and performs her domestic duties. She also learns to separate her disobedient inner life from conventional outer life. While married, Edna ceases to listen to herself and abandons her true feelings, so much so that she enters a sort of long sleep. However, Robert’s love, the beauty of the sea, and Mademoiselle Reisz’s music begin to awaken her senses. As her emotions and passions slowly return to her, she begins to questions her roles as wife and mother, and how much of her true self she sacrifices to fill these roles, according to social expectations.

As she learns to trespass social boundaries and to live according to her own desires, Edna sees that such a lifestyle inevitably leads to social rejection and isolation. She strives to preserve her individuality against the forces of social order but realizes that her newfound self is not compatible with the dominant patriarchal system. The realization of this incompatibility is what drives Edna’s decision to walk out into the sea.

Motherhood and Women’s Rights

In the 19th-century America, the women’s movement was only just gaining momentum, and women were deprived of even basic rights, such as the right to vote or own property. Conservative states like Louisiana, however, granted women even fewer rights. According to Louisiana law, women were in possession of their husbands and could not file for divorce. Moreover, there were constraints that regulated every aspect of women’s lives: how they should dress, when they should get married, how they should perform their matrimonial duties.

At first, Edna tries to abide by these rules, and lives a passionless yet comfortable life. But once her affection to Robert begins to develop, and the emotions she has suppressed for so long begin to reveal themselves, she rejects the roles imposed on her by society. She no longer wants to be submissive to Léonce, nor does she want to sacrifice her life for her children. Edna seeks new ways to express and define herself, to form her individuality outside the traditional sphere of gender roles and expectations. As becomes clear from the example of Mademoiselle Reisz, the Victorian society rejects women who follow an unconventional path and they inevitably become social outcasts. In the case of Mademoiselle Reisz, she is happy to live a life of isolation because it allows her to focus on her art. Edna, however, after choosing to exist outside predetermined social roles, cannot find a role or world for herself.

The Consequences of Self-Expression

Edna’s awakening unfolds simultaneously with her growing ability to express herself with the help of at least three new “languages.” Although only one of these languages is verbal, all three of them have an equally powerful effect on her. First, she learns to speak frankly and freely about her emotions. Ironically, Edna learns this lesson from Creole women and in particularly from Adèle, who, despite her chastity, is used to speaking openly. Edna, who has always been reserved in her speech, at first finds it shocking, but she soon realizes that this mode of expression is also liberating. As Edna learns that it is acceptable to speak about one’s emotions, she no longer suppresses her feelings and instead begins to acknowledge and articulate them.

As Edna’s transformation progresses, she seeks another means of expression for her newly-discovered and vibrant inner world. The second figurative language that Edna learns on her way to self-expression is the language of art. At first, it is the art of music—exemplified by Mademoiselle Reisz—that stirs in Edna previously-unknown emotions and further awakens her senses. When Edna listens to Mademoiselle Reisz perform on piano, her music becomes a sort of call, which Edna cannot ignore or forget. Once Edna realizes the power of music to express emotions, she turns to painting and pursues it with newfound eagerness. She no longer sees painting as merely a pastime, but instead perceives it as a form of true self-expression. While Edna turned to the frank mode of expression as a means to explore her emotional desires, painting becomes a means to explore her creative aspirations. As Edna finds freedom in the aesthetics of art, she gains strength to seek freedom in other aspects of her life as well.

Robert teaches Edna yet another language of self-expression: the language of sexuality. However, he is willing to practice this language only within predetermined social constraints, and as Edna begins to use this language more and more, Robert ceases to understand her. His rejection of Edna brings to the fore the contrast in the languages they speak: Edna no longer wants to comprehend his language of the convention, while Robert does not want to understand her language of open sexuality. In this regard, Edna mirrors the parrot from the opening of the novel, who speaks “a language which nobody understood” (1). It thus becomes clear that what Edna strives for—creative and erotic self-expression—has no place in the traditional, patriarchal social order.