Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, and Local ColorThe Literary Context of The Awakening

Four major literary movements can claim some aspect of The Awakening, for in this "small compass . . . [is illustrated] virtually all the major American intellectual and literary trends of the nineteenth century" (Skaggs, 80).

The Romantic movement marked a profound shift in sensibilities away from the Enlightenment. It was inspired by reaction to that period's concepts of clarity, order, and balance, and by the revolutions in America, France, Poland, and Greece. It expressed the assertion of the self, the power of the individual, a sense of the infinite, and transcendental nature of the universe. Major themes included the sublime, terror, and passion. The writing extolled the primal power of nature and the spiritual link between nature and man, and was often emotional, marked by a sense of liberty, filled with dreamy inner contemplations, exotic settings, memories of childhood, scenes of unrequited love, and exiled heroes.

In America, Romanticism coalesced into a distinctly "American" ideal: making success from failure, the immensity of the American landscape, the power of man to conquer the land, and "Yankee" individualism. The writing was also marked by a type of xenophobia. Protestant America was faced with an influx of Catholic refugees from the Napoleonic Wars, of Asian workers who constructed the railroads, and the lingering issue of Native Americans. An insular attitude developed, the "us and them" in Whitman. The major writers of the period were Irving, Cooper, Emerson, Poe, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Whitman, Dickinson, and Melville.

There are various romantic elements in The Awakening. Perhaps the most obvious and elemental are the exotic locale, use of color, and heavy emphasis on nature (click here). The overriding romantic theme in the novel is Edna's search for individuality and freedom: freedom to decide what to be, how to think, and how to live. This search amounts to her own romantic quest for a holy grail, a grail of self-definition. In the process two classic motifs of the Romantic movement occur: rebellion against society and death. Ringe points out that Edna lies between two extremes in life and is completely alone in the universe (204-05): a condition that is a hallmark of romanticism. As are the other prototypical romantic elements of the text: frequent inner thoughts, memories of childhood, the personified sea and its sensuous call, the fantastic talking birds, the mysterious woman in black, the romantic music playing almost constantly in the background, the dinner party, the gulf spirit, and the desire to express herself through art.

Realism developed as a reaction against Romanticism and stressed the real over the fantastic. The movement sought to treat the commonplace truthfully and used characters from everyday life. Writers probed the recesses of the human mind via an exploration of the emotional landscape of characters. This emphasis was brought on by societal changes sparked by The Origin of Species by Darwin, the Higher Criticism of the Bible, and the aftermath of the Civil War. A deeper, more pessimistic, literary movement called Naturalism grew out of Realism and stressed the uncaring aspect of nature and the

genetic, biological destiny of man. Naturalists believed that man's instinctual, basic drives dominated their actions and could not be evaded. Life was viewed as relentless, without a caring presence to intervene. Twain, Crane, London, Norris, Howells, James, and Dreiser were the major writers of this movement.

The aspect of naturalism most evident in The Awakening is the portrayal of Edna as hostage to her biology. She is female, has children, and is a wife in a society that dictates behavioral norms based on those conditions. These factors drive the novel and drive Edna. She makes "no attempt to suppress her amatory impulses" (Seyersted/Culley, 180), she bases her decisions on the welfare of her children, and she is in her difficult situation because of the men in her life: father, husband, lover, and would-be-lover. The inherited biological aspect continues with the idea that her character traits may have been tainted by bad stock. The novel is also true to the real life aspects of Realism and Naturalism in its forthright dealing with sexual matters: Arobin's seduction, the hot kisses she gives to Robert, Leonce's allusion that they no longer sleep together, the naked man on the rock. This type of description was actually advanced for both movements; Chopin provided a more detailed and full range of sexual emotions and activities than most other American novelists had. (Seyersted/ Culley, 181). The relationship between men and women and the economic aspects that go along with that issue are also realistic. Edna is "owned" at various points in the novel by her father, husband, Arobin, and Robert. Victor speaks of women in terms of possession, and Leonce is shown to class her as property, and to see her as a symbol of his social status. Edna herself remarks that as she moves into the pigeon house she feels she is lower on the social rank. Another naturalistic element in the novel is the portrayal of Edna as a victim of fate, chance, of an uncaring world, pulled into a consuming, but indifferent sea. In the end, despite her developments into selfhood, the only escape from her biological destiny as a woman in society, possessed, sexual, and ruled, is death.

Local Color writers were an offshoot of the Realistic movement. They sought to preserve a distinct way of life threatened by industrialization, immigration, the after effects of the War, and the changes in society. Their writing concentrated upon rendering a convincing portrait of a particular region and delving below the surface picture to reveal some universal aspect. A local color work "is one in which the identity of the setting is integral to the very unfolding of the theme, rather than simply incidental to a theme that could as well be set anywhere" (May, 195). Women local colorists were concerned with the place of women in society and the moral designs called for in a life. Freemen, Stowe, Harris, Chesnutt, and Cable were all important local colorists.

Local Color aspects of The Awakening include the characterizations of the people, the descriptions of places and fundamental meaning in the story, the Creole society and its social mores, and the aspects of women making choices that create a life. The characters are important to the plot, but also to the feeling of place: Mlle. Reisz is a bad-tempered spinster, Arobin is a Don Juan, the old men fussing in the boat and Mariequita are "typical" of the island

people, the woman in black is a "good Catholic Creole," and Adele is the "perfect" women. The settings of the story are integral with their meaning: New Orleans has to be a hothouse of societal rules, Grand Isle has to be distant and isolated, Cheniere Caminada needs to be magical in order for the symbolic aspects of each place to complement the story. The use of a foreign language and the focus on Edna's decisions in life are also elements of local color. Perhaps the most essential element of the story, and the most important reflection of local color, is the Creole society and its rules. These rules allow Edna to flirt with Robert with Leonce present, while later, these same rules cause Robert to leave.

© Neal Wyatt (1995)  [contact at nwyatt@leo.vsla.edu] Kate Chopin Study Text  

Ways of Interpreting Edna's Suicide: What the Critics SayNeal Wyatt, Virginia Commonwealth University

There are many ways of looking at the suicide, and each offers a different perspective. It is not necessary that you like the ending of the novel, but you should come to understand it in relation to the story it ends. One way to come to terms with her death is to construct a different ending. How would you have ended the story? What would you have Edna do? Would you have her reconcile with her husband? Have Robert stay with her and they be lovers? Have her divorce her husband and marry Robert? Have her move away from New Orleans and live alone? Have her do this, but with a chosen lover? These options are just some of the paths Edna could have followed.

Try to fit your ending into one of these categories: she can be with her lover (in any manner she wishes), she can be married (to a man of her choice), she can live alone. Each of the first two hypothetical endings would betray the point of the novel. Edna does not awaken to sex. She is liberated and does become a very sensual woman, but it is not to sexual expression that she wakens. Therefore, all options involving a lover fall short of fulfilling the meaning of her awakening. If she remains married or marries another, this would put her back (in terms of Webb) at the start of her circle: all the learning and struggling would be for naught. She would once again be a man's possession. Before rejecting the idea that marriage is equivalent to ownership in the world of the novel, remember how Robert speaks to her about their future together. He does not see her living an awakened life with him; he sees her leading the traditional life of a wife with him. The final option is the most difficult to reject. It would be nice to imagine her living and painting alone in a small house somewhere far away from New Orleans. This is not a real option: to see why, think back to the text. Who lives their life this way in the novel? Mademoiselle Reisz does. Is that life shown to be exemplary? No, by portraying Mlle. Reisz in the way Chopin does, she is instructing the reader that Mademoiselle's life is not one to which Edna should aspire.

The fact that readers do not like the ending, that they struggle to make sense of it, is reflected in the body of criticism on the novel: almost all scholars

attempt to explain the suicide. Some of the explanations will make more sense to you than others. By reading them you will come to a fuller understanding of the end of the novel (and in the process the entire novel) and hopefully make the ending less disappointing.

Joseph Urgo reads the novel in terms of Edna learning to narrate her own story. He maintains that by the end of the novel she has discovered that her story is "unacceptable in her culture" (23) and in order to get along in that culture she must be silent. Edna rejects this muting of her voice and would, Urgo maintains, rather "extinguish her life than edit her tale" (23). To save herself from an ending others would write or an ending that would compromise what she has fought to obtain, she has to write her own end and remove herself from the tale. As she swims out, the voices of her children come to pull at her like little "antagonists," and there are others on shore who would also hold her down: Robert, Adele, Arobin, and Leonce. Edna finds a way to elude them all, and narrates in her suicide the conclusion to her tale. In this type of reading, her suicide can be understood in terms of societal pressure. What is the result of silencing a person's voice? Urgo maintains, on a symbolic level, that it is equivalent to death. Symbolism made real by the ending of the novel.

Peggy Skaggs' reading of Edna's suicide is one of despair. Edna had awakened, found her selfhood, only to have that process and victory denied by Robert. His wanting her to be his "mother-woman," his wife with all the social conventions in place, denies her identity. Edna could not face this reality and chose not to exist if existence meant living in the societal cage in which all men wanted her to reside. Her life has become inseparable from the role her husband, lover, and society choose for her. Her identity is intertwined with the maternal nature that others decree should be her world. She has been denied by her father, husband, and Robert, the right to be what she wishes, and must place her sense of self inside their roles. Edna cannot do this, her sense of self was too hard won, too important to her now, to accept the role of wife and mother alone. As Skaggs' points out, "Edna's sense of self makes impossible her role of wife and mother as defined by her society; yet she comes to the discovery that her role of wife and mother also makes impossible her continuing sense of independent selfhood" (364). So as she walks into the water and swims away from the shore she thinks of "Leonce and the children. They were a part of her life. But they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul." Margit Stange explores the same idea of motherhood but sees it in terms of ownership. She believes that when Edna witnessed Adele's labor, she came to understand "extreme maternal giving" (117) and that this giving, a form of ownership, is what she wanted to avoid. The suicide reversed the exchange; by taking her life, withholding motherhood, she owns herself again.

George Spangler addresses the issue from a different perspective, not why she killed herself but would she have? He thinks that the action was inconsistent and inappropriate. He believes that after Edna overcame so much, demonstrated such strength of will and determination, she would not let

something like Robert's incomprehension of her advances push her into a state of suicidal despair. Portales takes issue with Spang

Kate Chopin: The Awakening - A naturalist

novel?

 

Table of contents

Introduction

Edna’s relationship to her

children

Edna and her husband

Edna and religion

Edna and society

Edna herself

Conclusion

Bibliography

Original cover of 1899Introduction

This paper aims at showing that „The Awakening“ by Kate Chopin

is in every sense a naturalist novel, as the protagonist, Edna

Pontellier, is surrounded by a world, that does not understand her.

The effects of society on this character are portrayed in a very

realistic way. While she is slowly trying to escape, everyone is

closing in and she is forced by her environment to take the steps

she does in the novel. Thus a most important feature of a naturalist

novel is realized: the determination by personal traits and by social

forces in the family, the class and the milieu. As a protagonist in a

naturalist novel, Edna is a victim of sociological pressures and,

because she cannot get along with the many- fold compulsions,

she perishes.

The proof for these statements will be taken from the novel itself

and the reception and interpretation of text passages.

Edna’s relationship to her children

Edna Pontellier is, the way she is portrayed in the novel, a very

individual figure. She does not exhibit the qualities that are

believed to be essential to a loving and dutiful wife and mother.

“Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother woman“(1) , it is said at the

beginning of the text. This impression is conceived by everyone

around her. Her husband believes nothing less and says that “[...]

his wife failed in her duty toward their children.“ (p.50). He, as the

head of his household, thinks it necessary to scold his wife for her

not acting as expected: “He reproached his wife with her

inattention, her habitual neglect of the children“ (p. 48). “Such

experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married

life.“ (p. 49). Edna is already used to these kinds of unfair

treatments. She actually is not a less loving mother than any other

woman. “I would give up the essential: I would give my money, I

would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself.“

(p.97). Because “She would never sacrifice herself for her children,

or for any one.“ (p. 97) she is seen as an unnatural parent and

wife. She has this handicap mostly due to her being different from

other women present at Grand Isle. “They were women who

idolized their children, worshipped their husbands, and esteemed it

a holy privilige to afface themselves as individuals and grow wings

as ministering angels“ (p.51). When nature made her female, it

established the rhythm of her life. Motherhood enchains women in

The Awakening through a combination of pain and love. Although

Edna’s sons play only a minor role in the novel, they nevertheless

control her destiny and lead her to suicide.

Edna and her husband

Edna is not ready to give up herself for anyone, especcially not for

her husband. She realizes to late that she has married the wrong

man:

Her marriage to Léonce Pontellier was purely an accident. […]He

pleased her; his absolute devotion flattered her. She fancied there

was a sympathy of thought and taste between them, in which

fancy she was mistaken. Add to this the violent opposition of her

father and her sister Margaret to her marriage with a Catholic, and

we need seek no further for the motives which led her to accept

Monsieur Pontellier for her husband. (p. 62).

Now her marriage is like a trap that she was led into and she

cannot get out. It is impossible for her to break the bond made

between herself and her husband.No matter how hard she tries,

there is no way out. “taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the

carpet. She stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it […][it] did

not make an indenture, not a mark upon the little glittering circlet

[…] slipped it upon her finger“ (p. 103). The glittering circlet that

once promised her rebellion against her father and sister (and that,

at first glance is a symbol for a bright and perfect marriage), turned

out to be no more than disguised handcuffs which she cannot take

off without society noticing her outragous act.

In a way, Edna Pontellier is a very romantic woman. She accepted

Léonce Pontellier because of his courting. But now all romance

seems to be gone from her and her husbands’ lives. Now he is

solely “looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of

property“ (p. 44). Property is a very important factor in his life and

Edna is a nice ornament for his belongings. He is only a

representation of society, though. In the same way that he “was

very fond of walking about his house examining its various

appointments and details, to see that no- thing was amiss“ (p. 99),

everyone else does the same. Moreover, “He greatly valued his

possessions, chiefly because they were his“ (p. 99). This, and the

following display his businessman- like attitude towards property

and appearance. “He was simply thinking of his financial integrity“

(p. 150). Thus, he is the absolute opposite of Edna. She does not

comprehend his behavior when it comes to money. Her primary

reason for working is not earning money but gaining self- esteem.

“I believe I ought to work again. I feel as if I wanted to be doing

something.“ (p. 100). Contrarily, society will judge her working as a

means of desperately earning money, as she should be absolutely

happy with caring for her children. Her self- fullfillment should lie

inside her husband’s house. This interpretation of working for want

of money is a total misunderstanding. Her utterance: “I would give

up the unessential; I would give my money...“ (p. 97) shows how

very different she thinks in a society that exclusively looks at

money and tries to determine happiness through assets that are

piled up.

If Edna were a different person genetically, Chopin hints, her life

might have been spared. But Edna is especially sensitive - to light,

to sound. Thus Chopin introduces a naturalistic, physiological,

predetermined aspect to Edna’s fate. Edna suffers from an

unnamed malady that throws her into fits of despondency. She

needs the sun; she becomes depressed on cloudy, dark days; she

is highly susceptible to changes in the weather and the effect of

passionate music.(2)

This becomes most obvious when Edna has two visions while

listening to Mlle. Reisz play: she notices “... the figure of a man

standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore. He was naked.

His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a

distant bird winging its flight away from him“ (p. 71).This naked,

forlorn figure is actually a foreshadowing, as Edna will be standing

naked on the beach at Grand Isle at the end of the novel. It is

interesting, though, that the person in her vision is male and not

female. It represents the expression of her inner self which

incorporates traits that usually are only attributed to males. It is her

fate to have a mind as free as any male can have it in a society not

inclined to grant women any intellect. In addition, this vision is an

allusion to something Mlle. Reisz tells her: “The bird that would

soar above the level plain of tradition must have strong wings. It is

a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering

back to earth.“ (p. 138). The person, looking up from the sky unto a

bird, signifies the having tried and having lost, in the end nothing

remains to do for Edna but to be looking back and to acknowledge

that she was — despite her high dreams – unable to compete in a

society not ready to accept her. Mlle. Reisz had warned her and

told her that “to succeed, the artist must possess the courages

soul […] . The brave soul. The soul that dares and defies.“ (p.

115). Edna had dared to rebell against the socioeconomic and

biological boundaries which walled her in but she was not

courages enough. “Finally, however, Edna realizes that there is

one self she cannot refuse, for this self is a product of her physical

being; the only way to renounce biology is to renounce the

physical self.“(3)

Edna’s second vision shows “a dainty young woman clad in an

Empire gown, taking mincing dancing steps as she came down a

long avenue between tall hedges“ (p. 71). Whereas the first vision

revealed Edna’s inner self and wishes, this vision is a parable for

how she feels at the moment. She is a beautifully dressed person

in a cage that does not allow her to take too many steps into any

direction. She is enclosed by a wall of growing and unmoving

material that is not like herself and does not understand her.

Chopin presents us with a woman as outsider, Edna, whose case

is made more complex by her apparent security in and attachment

to her husband’s world […] she is accepted in this Creole society

as an enchanting if somewhat naive lady. In actuality she is foreign

to that society but simultaniously complicit with the social and

sexual business of that world. Hers is, then, an extremely unstable

position, based on contingency and her proximity to authority.

Raised in Kentucky and Mississippi, she is neither Creole nor part

of the old way.(4)

Edna’s search for spiritual fulfillment is artificially satisfied by the

music of Reisz. She seems to read Edna’s thoughts or feelings,

and as Edna listens to Reisz play, she is overcome with passions

of solitude, hope, longing and despair.

Knowing the essential irreconcilability of her romantic dreams with

reality, Edna carefully avoids any confrontation of the two. Her

refrain that she will not think about the future runs like a motif

throughout the novel. Attempting to protect her revitalized inner

life, Edna physically and psychologically isolates herself, casting

off family responsibilities, persuing her solitary thoughts, and finally

moving to her own house.“(5)

The difference between Edna and Léonce is already apparent in

their looks. Edna is described as a young woman with eyes that

are “quick and bright“ (p. 45) which is opposed by her husband

having to wear spectacles to correct his vision.

The supposed freedom of the Creole people is in direct contrast

with the repression of female self- will. The Creole society forbids

women to develop any other talents or interests than motherhood

and wifehood. Edna’s friendships are expected to contribute to

Léonce’s business. Hence, Edna does not play her ideologic roles

well and Léonce finds a reason to accuse her of neglecting the

family when she takes up painting.

Edna and religion

Another very prominent feature in the society is religion.

Particularly married women were required to submit to the

thoughts and rituals of the church. However, Edna happens to not

have been a very religious person from the beginning. Talking

about her childhood, she remembers: “I was running away from

prayers.“ (p. 60). She admits that “during one period of my life

religion took a firm hold upon me; after I was twelve and until —

until — why, I suppose until now, though I never thought much

about it — just driven along by habit.“ (p. 61). Through realizing

that religion has become merely a habit it is destined to be

abandoned by Edna who is now (at Grand Isle) discovering her

own self and giving up everything that is not absolutely her own.

By doing this she displays “more wisdom than the Holy Ghost is

usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman“ (p. 57). Her break

with religion is a very spontaneous reaction while being in service.

“A feeling of oppression and drowsiness overcame Edna during

the service [...] her one thought was to quit the stifling atmosphere

of the church and reach the open air.“ (p. 82/83). By leaving the

church she regains her freedom from all moral values favoured by

the church. She no longer has to be the loving and caring wife who

only lives for her husband and consequently enjoys her day away

from social restrictions.

Edna and society

As mentioned before, Edna was a stranger to the Creole society

and to society in general, as she did not fit in. This often causes

misunderstandings: “the two women did not appear to understand

each other or to be talking the same language“ (p. 97) and results

in her feeling even more an outcast than she is anyway “Edna’s

face was a blaze picture of bewilderment, which she never thought

of disguising.“ (p.89).She is not able to comprehend the way of the

Creole people: “Edna wondered if they had all gone mad.“ (p. 91)

Likewise, her husband found more than once reason to reprimand

her for not acting according to the social code: “I should think you’d

understand by this time that people don’t do such things, we’ve got

to observe les convenances if we ever expect to get on and keep

up with the procession.“ (p. 101). Also, he “begged her to consider

first, foremost, and above all else, what people would say.“ (p.

150). An important feature of social life was the making and

receiving of visits.

Mrs. Pontellier, attired in a handsome reception gown, remained in

the drawing- room the entire afternoon receiving visitors […] This

had been the programme which Mrs. Pontellier had religously

followed since her marriage six years before. (p. 100)

Everyone was supposed to pay attention to these expositions of

„domestic harmony“ (p. 107). By not returning visits, Edna insults

everyone around her but she is not willing to give up her newly

found independence from social requirements.

Edna herself

Edna is described as a person that starts changing at the

beginning of the novel. „An indiscernible oppression , which

seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness,

filled her whole being with a vague anguish“ (p. 49). Gradually, her

perception of what happens to her grows. Moreover, it is explained

that this changing is not an act of will but rather something that she

cannot influence or stop even if she wanted.

That summer at Grand Isle she began to loosen a little the mantle

of reserve that had always enveloped her [...] There must have

been influences, both subtle and apparent, working in their several

ways to induce her to do this. (p. 57).

She could only realize that she herself — her present self — was

in some way different from the other self. That she was seeing with

different eyes and making the acquaintance of new conditions in

herself that colored and changed her environment, she did not yet

suspect. (p. 88).

Edna’s first steps at being independent are not an act of will but

are the natural steps of a person that — after having been prisoner

to other people’s commands — for all her life suddenly is cast into

freedom. “She was blindly following whatever impulse moved her,

as if she had placed herself in alien hands for direction, and freed

her soul of responsibility.“ (p. 79). Although the first steps into

freedom are not reflected on, her first step into rebellion is explicitly

described and at the same time her until then lifelong conforming

is justified.

Another time she would have gone in at his request. She would,

through habit, have yielded to his desire; not with any sense of

submission or obedience to his compelling wishes, but

unthinkingly, as we walk, move, sit, stand, go through the daily

treadmill of the life which has been portioned out to us. (p. 77 /78).

Following this first incident, “She began to do as she liked and to

feel as she liked“ (p. 107). She has acquired her own identity and

no longer depends on other people. She knows her mind and is

determined to do whatever she believes to be right. “I’m not going

to be forced into doing things. I don’t want to go abroad. I want to

be let alone. Nobody has any right...“ (p. 171). When she finally is

questioned by the doctor, her answer “But I don’t want anything

but my own way. That is wanting a good deal, of course, when you

have to trample upon the lives, the hearts, the prejudices of

others...“ (p. 171) has actually two dimensions. One is, that she

expresses her wishes, which she so far did not tell anyone except

those people very close to her. The other thing conveyed is

everyone’s attitude towards her as a wife living all by her own in a

house not provided by her husband, receiving male visitors, going

to the races and working as a painter. They are prejudiced and do

not accept the way of life she chose which they consider to be an

“outspoken revolt against the ways of Nature“ (p.170). In addition

to that she emphazises, how a family is almost unthinkable to exist

without a loving wife and mother being present. Edna is not

dispositioned to be kept in this place against her will and

inclination. “In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her

position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her

relations as an individual to the world within and about her.“ (p.

57).

The thing that her acquaintances think to be worst about her they

at one point actually admire. “How handsome Mrs. Pontellier

looked! […] The city atmosphere has improved her. Some way she

doesn’t seem like the same woman.“ (p. 113).Of course, they do

not know that Edna’s new advance towards life and her own self is

the reason for her appearance. Still, it proves that this is the only

possible life for her. Her old way of handling life or any other

approach would eventually signify her physical and psychal

destruction.

She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and

emotions which never voiced themselves. They had never taken

the form of struggles. They belonged to her and were her own, and

she entertained the conviction that she had a right to them and that

they concerned no one but herself. (p. 96/97).

Edna had from childhood on been predisposed to pursue the

individual, or exceptional, rather than the socially determined or

sanctioned. “Even as a child she had lived her own small life all

within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended

instinctively the dual life — that outward existence which conforms,

the inward life which questions.“ (p. 57) Consequently, she has

always been both receptive to the sensuous and intuitively aware

of her determined existence. Therefore it is not clear for her

husband that this change is an improvement:

It sometimes entered Mr. Pontellier’s mind to wonder if his wife

were not growing a little unbalanced mentally. He could see plainly

that she was not herself. That is, he could not see that she was

becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which

we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world.

(p. 188).

Conclusion

The extracts from the text provided here obviously prove the

assumption that Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is a naturalist

novel. Edna Pontellier was caught inside the pitfall of her own

character caught in the respective society around her. From the

beginning on she was determined to fail the way she did.

Bibliography

Kate Chopin. The Awakening and selected stories. 1984. Penguin

Books USA Inc. 1986.

Mary E. Papke. Verging on the Abyss — the social fiction of Kate

Chopin and Edith Wharton. Greenwood Press: New York;

Westport, Connecticut; London, 1990

Kate Chopin. Ed. Harold Bloom.Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.

Kate Chopin reconsidered — Beyond the Bayou. Ed. Lynda S.

Boren and Sara deSaussure Davis. Louisiana State University

Press Baton Rouge and London. 1992.

 

Footnotes

(1) Kate Chopin, The Awakening and selected stories. 1984. (New

York: Penguin Books USA Inc, 1986) 51. All page references

within the text refer to this edition.

(2) Boren, Lynda S. „Taming the Sirens - Possession and

strategies of art in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening“ Kate Chopin

reconsidered — Beyond the Bayou. Ed. Lynda S. Boren and Sara

deSaussure Davis. (Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State

University Press, 1992)

(3) Kathleen Margaret Lant, “The Siren of Grand Isle: Adèle’s role

in The Awakening“, Kate Chopin, Ed. Harold Bloom. (Chelsea

House Publishers, 1987)

(4) Mary E. Papke, Verging on the Abyss — the social fiction of

Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton. (New York; Westport,

Connecticut; London: Greenwood Press:, 1990)

(5) Susan J. Rosowski „The novel of Awakening“ in Chopin ed. by

Harald Bloom (New York; Westport, Conneticut; London: 1990)

 

Download: Kate Chopin : The Awakening - A naturalist novel?

  19th Century Realism, Naturalism, and Symbolism

 

Realism

A literary and philosophical movement that was a reaction to the falseness and sentimentality of Romanticism

Defined as "the truthful treatment of material"

Characteristics:

Perception of "truth" is relative & associated with experiences, emotions, consequences

Emphasis on middle-class values, conventions, manners Concern for the ordinary, i.e., verisimilitude or "slice of life" Focus on present, specific action and verifiable consequences Simple, clear, direct prose Objective authorial viewpoint Emphasis on characterization, i.e., motivation & development, the

character's inner-self

Naturalism

The application of principles of scientific determinism to fiction and drama and makes the assumption that everything that is real exists in nature, which is defined as the world of objects, actions, and forces possessing significance revealed only through scientific inquiry

Uses aspects of reality that are representative of "the big picture"

Perspectives:

Biological Determinism (Darwinian)

Emphasis on the animal nature of human beings, driven by fundamental urges

Portrays man as engaged in the brutal struggle to survive in a "lawless jungle" where only the strong or the most fit endure

Socioeconomic Determinism (Marxist)

Humans seen as victims of environmental forces and the products of social and economic factors beyond their control and complete understanding

Symbolism

Use of one object to represent or suggest another

Literary symbols are of two broad types:

1. 1.     Those which embody within themselves universal suggestions of meaning, such as the sea or water imagery, sunset & dawn, etc…

2. 2.     Another which secures its suggestiveness not from inherent qualities but from the way it is used in the work, such as the scarlet letter in Hawthorne's novel or Melville's white whale

3.  4.  

Premium Content The Only Ending for Edna in The Awakening

By Lena Crisp - March 11, 2001

In her novel, The Awakening, Kate Chopin shows Edna Pontellier¹s confrontations with society, her imprisonment in marriage and Edna¹s exploration of her own sexuality. Chopin also portrays Edna as a rebel, who after her experiences at Grand Isle wants to live a full and a free life and not to follow the rules of society. Edna¹s life ends in her…

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Related Content for The Awakening Study Guide for The Awakening E-Text for The Awakening Forum for The Awakening Purchase The Awakening and Related Material Biography of Kate Chopin

Essays for The Awakening Join now to access all essays

Morality and Self-sacrifice Symbol of Clothing The Only Ending for Edna in The Awakening Womanhood in The Awakening and The Yellow

Wall-Paper The Open Sea: The Centrality of Ambiguity in

Kate Chopin's The Awakening

Failure or Success: The Conflict over Edna Pontellier's Suicide

Edna Takes Flight: The Symbolism of Birds in The Awakening

The Development of Edna Pontellier's Character

Edna's Victorian Womanhood The Soul and the Butterfly: A Comparison of

Psyche and Edna The Prevalence of Realism in Kate Chopin's

"The Awakening" Kate Chopin's Liberated Women "The Awakening: The Function of Two

Contrasting Settings" Awakening via the Omniscient Narrator The Roles of Women in Kate Chopin's The

Awakening and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

The Search for Happiness An Analysis of Food in The Awakening Bird and Sea Symbolize Edna's Awakening Edna's Swim: The First Step in Her

"Awakening" Effects of the Environment on Edna's Psyche

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