Cliffsnotes on Chopin's the Awakening

by Maureen Kelly

Book Overview

The CliffsNotes study guide on Chopin's The Awakening supplements the original literary work, giving you background information about the author, an introduction to the work, a graphical character... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0764586521
• ISBN13: 9780764586521
• Release Date: December 2000
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.3" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Immense talent in a little package

Thank you to all my reading friends who suggested The Awakening as one of their favorite classic novels! I have been trying to branch out into new literary worlds, and the classics is one genre that I hadn't yet touched. Still a novice, but my journey has been so profitable thus far. The Awakening was one novel that is incredibly easy to read and holds such powerful prose in so few pages.A taboo subject back in its day, The Awakening tells the story of one woman's emotional journey from a stifled, miserable marriage to a spirited and lusty freedom. Young Edna Pontellier feels trapped in a loveless, although pampered, life with husband, Leonce. Stirrings of independence begin one summer while resorting in Grand Isle, an island off the coast of Louisiana. These new feelings have begun a profound change in Edna, liberating her beyond belief. Thus ensues an infidelity that dreams are made of, although at the expense of her marriage and motherhood.Hardly shocking in this day and age, The Awakening's subject of marital infidelity and physical lust for another is always a pageturner. The theme of the novel -- Edna's torment at the chains that bind her and the flutterings of an unbridled passion -- is brought to life with beautiful writing in simple, elegant words. I am surprised to find such a passionate and provocative story within its pages. Short but penetrating, The Awakening will move you.

Readers...Awaken

Though at one time I, too, would have rated "The Awakening" one of the worst reads of a lifetime--for its predictability in the context of a woman oppressed by Victorian society, and the most undeveloped, unsympathetic heroine for whom I was unable to muster the slightest emotional investment--a nagging, relentless undercurrent of something I couldn't quite identify festered long inside me regarding this novel until the story, and author, were at last redeemed upon my third reading, in a literature course that finally ended this internal struggle.Having much faith in Kate Chopin as a writer, I never felt 'the awakening' was about sex. This was too easy, even for a book set in Victorian Society. Further, it occurred to me that although women were limited beyond the domestic sphere in this era, suicide was not particular to the phenomenology of Victorian women (as it was, say, to Wall Street brokers at the onset of the Great Depression)."The Awakening," in title and content, is irony. Edna Pontellier's awakening is about who she perceives herself to be, and who she actually is. She dreams of passion and romance and embarks on a summer affair, yet she married Leonce simply to spite her parents, who don't like him. She moves out of the family home to live on her own--with the permission, and resources, of Leonce--hardly independent. She claims to crave intimacy, yet she fails horribly at every intimate relationship in her life: she is detached with her children, indifferent to her husband, leery of her artist friend, and can hardly stand another minute at the bedside of her warm, maternal friend, Mrs. Ratignolle, to assist her in childbirth. (Ratignolle was my favorite character of all, read after read, simply because she was so content with herself.)The Awakening? The surprise is on Edna, who is not the person she imagines herself to be. The irony? Edna Pontellier is never awakened to this, even at the bitter end. Feminists have adopted this book as their siren song...embarrassing at least! A feminist reading would, predictably, indict Victorian society as oppressive to women. Yawn...So that's new?!! Tell us something we don't know! I can tell you that concept wouldn't be enough to keep a book around for a hundred years.But the concept that has sustained this novel over a century's time is its irony. And it is superbly subtle. I believe Chopin deliberately set up Victorian society as her backdrop to cleverly mask this irony...'the awakening' is not something good (a daring sexual awakening in a dark era for women): it is something horrible that evolves and is apparent to everyone except the person experiencing it. This reading makes Edna's character worth hating! Chopin herself hated Edna Pontellier and called her a liar through her imagined conversation with her artist friend at the end of the novel.Chopin also cleverly tips the scales in Edna's favor in the first half of the novel, but a careful read reveals those scales weigh

the awakening

When The Awakening was published at the end of the XIX century, the novel was not well received. The protagonist, Edna Pontellier, was accussed of being a bad wife, a bad mother, a bad person... a bad example to women. Ms. Chopin died a couple of years later without publishing another book. Less than 100 years later, The Awakening has been rescued and it is considered one of the milestones in women's literature. Edna lives a comfortable, pleasant, wealthy life in New Orleans. Edna, like all other women in her same social-economic status, is expected to conform to the images that society and literature has created and perpetuated about them: those of the angel-woman, the mother-woman, the perfect-woman. Edna's friend, Adele Ratignolle, is precisely the embodiment of all these virtues, and is against Adele that Edna measures herself and begins to question her place in the world. When seeing the Ratignolles acting at unison, Edna feels depressed rather than soothed and this picture of perfect married life left Edna with a sense of "pity for that colorless existence which never uplifted its possessor beyond the region of blind contentment." Edna begins to search for her own identity, very much like a man would, the difference is that because of her gender, Edna is not allowed to explore and grow as an individual. Edna begins gradually to awaken not only to her own independence but to her sexuality, as well. She leaves the comfort of her husband's home and moves into her own small place, she begins to paint for a living and she takes a lover. Yet she soon realizes that no matter how hard she tries to be a person, she (and all women by extension) will always be perceived as someone's appendage and never her own person. There are metaphors throughout the book that evoke Edna's increasing awareness: she goes through periods of deep sleep and she swims, which is also a metaphor for her progressive awakening. Overall The Awakening is one of those books that is still pertinent today, for although women are allowed to have careers and speak their own minds, women are still expected to be above all mothers and wives. This dichotomy between being a wife/mother-woman and a woman-woman - still sparks today - 100 years later - controversy.

Desires vs. Duties: A Review of The Awakening

At a time when a woman's roles in society were the doting wife and devoted mother, Edna Pontellier becomes more and more aware of her distaste for these responsibilities. Kate Chopin's heroine embodies the theme of escapism and the view of marriage and motherhood as traps. During the summer at Grand Isle, Edna becomes more apathetic towards her devoted, providing husband (whom she never loved, but was "fond" of) and vague, nondescript children (who symbolize children as burdens rather than blessings). As she distances herself from her family, Edna grows closer to a dear acquaintance and the object of her romantic desire, Robert Lebrum. Once Edna and her family return to New Orleans, she shirks her former duties, such as being a hostess on Tuesdays, and instead focuses on her artistic talents. When her husband goes on a business trip and her children stay with their grandmother, Edna becomes more bold and independent, finding pleasure in a man who satisfies her physical desire, Alcee Arobin. As her senses awake, she allows herself to become receptive to personal pleasures as a way to discover her true self and what she really seeks: freedom. The novel provides excellent psychological insights and guides the reader through Edna's mind as she begins the journey towards self-fulfillment and independence. The novel is also filled with symbols and motifs such as birds (symbolic of Edna), music (passion), the sea (escape), the young lovers (Edna and Robert), and the lady in black (always seen following the lovers as a symbol of their fate). Nearly every sentence bears a deeper, symbolic meaning. Through the vivid characterizations and descriptions of emotions and psychological drives, the reader is pulled through the novel with a passionate sympathy and understanding of Edna's motives. As the chapters come to an end, Edna presents her realization about her desires and takes the only path that can give her what she seeks. Though one may not agree with her choices, one can see her reasons. For that, Chopin establishes herself as a master of the portrayal of the female psyche and a phenomenal writer.

Trapped in a cycle

This book was one of the best novels I have ever read in my life. There are many biblical allusions and hidden messages behind the authors words. I strongly disagree with the comments of the people that said it was boring...they didn't understand the book. In the beginning of the novel Kate Chopin starts with the parrot in the cage and Mr. Pontellier. Why did she start her novel like that-did you ever wonder? Kate Chopin mentions the parrot in the cage to symbolize Edna's entrappment and wanting her freedom. Mr. Pontellier wears glasses because he is blind to see how society works in the Victorian era. The lady in black and the lovers in the novel are the two different decisions that Edna has to make. The lady in black represents the spiritual love (marriage)and she is blind to everything that surrounds her-she is only concerned with her love for Christ. The lovers represent the individuality and concern only for themselves-they represent sin. Edna needs to make a decision between following the society's acceptance of her marriage or become an outcast and having an affair that can ruin Mr. Pontellier's reputation and her children's. A biblical allusion that Kate Chopin states is when Edna is having her dinner party. That party represents The Last Supper in where she is giving her good-bye to the old Edna and saying hello to the new Edna. She invites 12 guests just like the 12 disciples. She is dressed like a goddess and says "drink to my health"-'This is my blood'Jesus says. Robert, the man she plans on having the affair with is exactly like Mr. Pontellier. Edna is going through the same cycle and her only escape is death. The novel is very interesting and you just have to use your brains a little harder and ask "Why did the author write this? What was the purpose behind it? What meaning does it have?" If you ask these questions to every book you read you as a reader will understand and enjoy the book you are reading. By doing this your horizons will expand and you will be a better reader and writer which will make you a better thinker! I hope you agree with me.