Topic > The Awakening of Kate Chopin: A Journey of Self-Discovery

The Awakening of Kate Chopin, an 1899 short story, tells the story of a young woman who goes through a dramatic period of change as she “awakens” to the restrictions of her traditional social role and her full potential as a woman. The novel shares elements of the local color genre. It was written between 1897 and 1899 when Chopin was living in St. Louis. The narrator is anonymous and mostly objective, although in many cases the reader feels sympathetic to the main character's struggle for independence. Chopin's choice of diction and syntax makes the novella almost as if it were from his point of view. Throughout this tale, the protagonist, Edna Pontellier, awakens in situations that signify more metaphorical awakenings to new knowledge and sensual experiences. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, tells the sexual awakening of a woman who lives the reality of wife and mother until the young age of twenty-eight. Edna finds herself feeling so subjugated and pained that she is willing to challenge many aspects of Creole civilization to gain spiritual immunity. Edna gradually abandons reality, starting a bohemian lifestyle to exercise freedom of choice in matters of sex. The process of finding Edna in Kate Chopin's The Awakening takes place in a series of three significant phases that ultimately lead to Edna's death at the conclusion. Before Edna begins to discover herself, she is caught between her desire to explore herself and her desires more fully and the reality of femininity and Victorian life. It is not until the first major event of his awakening; the fusion of music and a swim in the ocean that finally awakens a much more realistic sense of self-awareness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Mechanically, various characters trigger particular aspects of Edna's awakening. Pianist Mademoiselle Reisz characterizes a woman who is independent as an artist, but uninterested in personal appearance or public scrutiny. Encourage Edna to draw and cultivate her creativity. Chopin intentionally fails to represent a woman who can be both an artist and a mother. Mademoiselle Reisz may also seem less “feminine” because she does not conform to society's norms. Reisz, unlike Edna, lives his one-sided reality without asking questions. Venturing into the tale, Chopin incorporates two men as lovers in Edna's sexual awakening. The way Robert Lebrun sees Edna provides more equal mutual consent than his failed marriage could. Edna credits Robert with awakening her that summer on Grand Isle. Chopin describes Robert in a way that shows he loves Edna quite generously, but his desires are tinged with a possessiveness that Edna cannot bear. She rejects the possibility of marriage, saying: “I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier's assets to be disposed of or not. I give myself where I choose. If he were here to say, 'Here, Robert, take her and be happy; she's yours", I should laugh at both of you." Chopin continues to elaborate on each of Edna's individual awakenings, writing "As she swam she seemed to reach for the limitless in which to lose herself." further elements of Edna's awakening, while also alluding to her suicide because she ultimately becomes lost in her own reality. Subsequently, Edna no longer possesses the will to reflect her past self who is still a victim of Victorian demands (housework, raising children, being a faithful wife, etc.), but she is healed and reborn. Chopin writes: "Edna began to feel like someone gradually awakening from a dream, a delicious, grotesque, impossible dream, to feel again the.