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The Look
of
The Awakening
A pictorial aid to envisioning Chopin’s world
Dr. Nick Melczarek ● ENGL 252 ●Aspects of the Novel
Grand Isle, Louisiana, on the Gulf of Mexico(before the distasterous 1893 hurricane)
(actually the Lane Krantz Hotel, Grand Isle)
family-size rental cottage, Grand Isle
Going to the beach at the time of The Awakening (c.1899)
At the Beach, (c.1907?) Edward Henry PotthastMother and her children, bathing c.1903
Women and children’s
swimwear/beachwear
c.1897-1907
Going to the beach at the time of The Awakening (c.1899)
CONSIDER: each time we see Edna on Grande Isle, either in or just out of
the water, what is she wearing, or what has she just taken off?
Given the amount of clothing involved, what does each incident
potentially mean?
L F
Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Chênière Caminada
The Awkening Ch XII
Sheet music for Balfe’s original
“Si tu savais”
Michael William Balfe, Irish-
American composer of popular
songs, wrote this c.1859.
The actual lyrics differ from
those in Chopin’s novel,
indicating that she may have
drawn on the song from
memory.
Calling cards
The Awkening Ch XVII
(see also pp.150-151 in Cultural Context material)
Calling cards of the time period
Calling
card
tray
Calling
card
holder
Location, location, location
Pontellier house on
Esplanade Ave* (Ch XVII)*“Esplanade Street” in the novel
Ratignolle apartment in
the “French Quarter” /
Vieux Carré(Ch XVIII)
Lebrun house on
Chartres (Ch XX)
Reisz apartment (?)(Ch XXI)
Mandelet’s house (?)(Ch XXII)
Edna’s “pigeon house”
“around the corner”(Chs XXVI, XXIX)
French Quarter / Vieux Carré / Quartier Français
The heart of Créole New Orleans
Location, location, location
Pontellier house on
Esplanade Ave* (Ch XVII)*“Esplanade Street” in the novel
Ratignolle apartment in
the “French Quarter” /
Vieux Carré(Ch XVIII)
Lebrun house on
Chartres (Ch XX)
Reisz apartment (?)(Ch XXI)
Mandelet’s house (?)(Ch XXII)
Edna’s “pigeon house”
“around the corner”(Chs XXVI, XXIX)
Location, location, location
Pontellier house on
Esplanade Ave* (Ch XVII)*“Esplanade Street” in the novel
Ratignolle apartment in
the “French Quarter” /
Vieux Carré(Ch XVIII)
Lebrun house on
Chartres (Ch XX)
Reisz apartment (?)(Ch XXI)
Mandelet’s house (?)(Ch XXII)
Edna’s “pigeon house”
“around the corner”(Chs XXVI, XXIX)
Location, location, location
Pontellier house on
Esplanade Ave* (Ch XVII)*“Esplanade Street” in the novel
Ratignolle apartment in
the “French Quarter” /
Vieux Carré(Ch XVIII)
Lebrun house on
Chartres (Ch XX)
Reisz apartment (?)(Ch XXI)
Mandelet’s house (?)(Ch XXII)
Edna’s “pigeon house”
“around the corner”(Chs XXVI, XXIX)
A multi-use urban space
in the Vieux Carré, based
on comparable homes
back in Paris:
upper floors for living
lower floors
(street level) for business
Location, location, location
Pontellier house on
Esplanade Ave* (Ch XVII)*“Esplanade Street” in the novel
Ratignolle apartment in
the “French Quarter” /
Vieux Carré(Ch XVIII)
Lebrun house on
Chartres (Ch XX)
Reisz apartment (?)(Ch XXI)
Mandelet’s house (?)(Ch XXII)
Edna’s “pigeon house”
“around the corner”(Chs XXVI, XXIX)
A multi-use urban space
in the Vieux Carré, based
on comparable homes
back in Paris:
upper floors for living
lower floors
(street level) for business
Location, location, location
Pontellier house on
Esplanade Ave* (Ch XVII)*“Esplanade Street” in the novel
Ratignolle apartment in
the “French Quarter” /
Vieux Carré(Ch XVIII)
Lebrun house on
Chartres (Ch XX)
Reisz apartment (?)(Ch XXI)
Mandelet’s house (?)(Ch XXII)
Edna’s “pigeon house”
“around the corner”(Chs XXVI, XXIX)
Typical Créole house
design in the
Quarter, facing right
up to the
sidewalk/banquette ...
... with rear
courtyard
containing servant
quarters or
garçonnière (for
unmarried men in
the household)
Location, location, location
Pontellier house on
Esplanade Ave* (Ch XVII)*“Esplanade Street” in the novel
Ratignolle apartment in
the “French Quarter” /
Vieux Carré(Ch XVIII)
Lebrun house on
Chartres (Ch XX)
Reisz apartment (?)(Ch XXI)
Mandelet’s house (?)(Ch XXII)
Edna’s “pigeon house”
“around the corner”(Chs XXVI, XXIX)
Some Créole townhouses had a port-cochère or
coach/carriage entrance, where the family carriage would
pull in to an interior hall with a side entrance into the
house, before continuing on to the stables at the far back
or in a side building.
Location, location, location
Pontellier house on
Esplanade Ave* (Ch XVII)*“Esplanade Street” in the novel
Ratignolle apartment in
the “French Quarter” /
Vieux Carré(Ch XVIII)
Lebrun house on
Chartres (Ch XX)
Reisz apartment (?)(Ch XXI)
Mandelet’s house (?)(Ch XXII)
Edna’s “pigeon house”
“around the corner”(Chs XXVI, XXIX)
Créole interiors:
French taste meets
the tropics
Location, location, location
Pontellier house on
Esplanade Ave* (Ch XVII)*“Esplanade Street” in the novel
Ratignolle apartment in
the “French Quarter” /
Vieux Carré(Ch XVIII)
Lebrun house on
Chartres (Ch XX)
Reisz apartment (?)(Ch XXI)
Mandelet’s house (?)(Ch XXII)
Edna’s “pigeon house”
“around the corner”(Chs XXVI, XXIX)
Créole interiors:
French taste meets
the tropics
Location, location, location
Pontellier house on
Esplanade Ave* (Ch XVII)*“Esplanade Street” in the novel
Ratignolle apartment in
the “French Quarter” /
Vieux Carré(Ch XVIII)
Lebrun house on
Chartres (Ch XX)
Reisz apartment (?)(Ch XXI)
Mandelet’s house (?)(Ch XXII)
Edna’s “pigeon house”
“around the corner”(Chs XXVI, XXIX)
Créole interiors:
French taste meets
the tropics
Location, location, location
Pontellier house on
Esplanade Ave* (Ch XVII)*“Esplanade Street” in the novel
Ratignolle apartment in
the “French Quarter” /
Vieux Carré(Ch XVIII)
Lebrun house on
Chartres (Ch XX)
Reisz apartment (?)(Ch XXI)
Mandelet’s house (?)(Ch XXII)
Edna’s “pigeon house”
“around the corner”(Chs XXVI, XXIX)
Given the description
in the text, Reisz’
apartment values
privacy, light, and
space above comfort
or appearance—
likely she lives in a
3rd or 4th-floor
apartment or attic
space, which were
(and are) plentiful in
New Orleans.
Uppermost floors of the Pontalba Apartments, boardering
Jackson Square—the first apartment building in North
America.
Uppermost-storey garret/studio in the Vieux
Carré, overlooking other rooftops.
Location, location, location
Pontellier house on
Esplanade Ave* (Ch XVII)*“Esplanade Street” in the novel
Ratignolle apartment in
the “French Quarter” /
Vieux Carré(Ch XVIII)
Lebrun house on
Chartres (Ch XX)
Reisz apartment (?)(Ch XXI)
Mandelet’s house (?)(Ch XXII)
Edna’s “pigeon house”
“around the corner”(Chs XXVI, XXIX)(actually the Sauvinet House, 831 Gov. Nicholls St.)
(actually the
Fisk-Hopkins House,
730 Esplanade Ave)
Dr. Mandelet’s
residence & office
are unusual for
having a front
garden space—he
likely lives either
outside the Vieux
Carré, or adjacent
to it.
(both locales well within Créole territory)
Location, location, location
Pontellier house on
Esplanade Ave* (Ch XVII)*“Esplanade Street” in the novel
Ratignolle apartment in
the “French Quarter” /
Vieux Carré(Ch XVIII)
Lebrun house on
Chartres (Ch XX)
Reisz apartment (?)(Ch XXI)
Mandelet’s house (?)(Ch XXII)
Edna’s “pigeon house”
“around the corner”(Chs XXVI, XXIX)
actual pigeonniers, used to house pigeons for food
“the pigeon house”
on an
Awakening-themed tour modest 4-room Créole cottages
Location, location, location
Pontellier house on
Esplanade Ave* (Ch XVII)*“Esplanade Street” in the novel
Ratignolle apartment in
the “French Quarter” /
Vieux Carré(Ch XVIII)
Lebrun house on
Chartres (Ch XX)
Reisz apartment (?)(Ch XXI)
Mandelet’s house (?)(Ch XXII)
Edna’s “pigeon house”
“around the corner”(Chs XXVI, XXIX)
at left, an “American” central-hall plan
at right, a Créole four-room plan
Gaiters
The Awkening Ch XXI – Mlle Reisz repairs hers (prunella color) by hand
Also known as spats , a covering
for shoes of the time period
to protect them from mud and
dirt
p i r o g u e -- a small, 1- or 2-seater*, usually flat-bottomed
rowboat/skiff used by Cajuns on the swamps, bayous and
along the coast of Louisiana for fishing, crawfish-/crabbing,
and for transport. Sometimes hand-dug out of a cypress log,
sometimes more refined and made from treated wood
planks. (Not the same as a canoe, but related.)
* Some pirogues are much larger, used for crabtraps and other activity on the bayous and swamps—
these usually are called bateaux.
http://www.unclejohns.com/boat/
http://www.louisianafolklife.org/lt/virtual_books/guide_to_state/comeaux.html
Edna
Mr. Merriman
Edna’s dinner party
Ch. XXX
Gouve
rnail
lorgnettes
artist, nonconformist;
allows Robert and Edna
to correspond through her address
Adèle’s “ideal” husband;
a pharmacist
journalist/reporter;
after dinner, quotes
Swinburne’s “A Cameo” under his breath
playboy
Robert’s younger brother
“intellectual”?
“friend” of Arobin;
see description Ch. XXV
= arrive together
(Créole)
(Créole)
(Créole)
(Créole)
(American)
(American)
(American)
(American)
(American)
(German, German-American?)
Abbott Handerson Thayer’s
Angel (1887)
See with Coventry Patmore’s
“The Angel in the House”
excerpt PDF
Making women look like “ladies”
Wicker-and-ribbon bustleExtreme corseting, likely with
surgical lower rib removal, c.1899
At left, a woman’s
normal torso;
at right,
the corseted torso.
This is a male-
produced medical
guide, ergo, men
knew exactly what
corseting did to
women’s bodies.
Making women look like “ladies”
The movies don’t make it look nearly as bad/painful
as it actually was
Mammy trusses Scarlett,
Gone With the Wind (1940)
Elizabeth gets controlled,
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
The odd issue of “race” in postbellum New Orleans
Whether one realizes it, The Awakening is populated by
a Black servant class. This was one strata of a many-
tiered system of African-derived culture and population,
unique to (French) parts of the Caribbean, and New
Orleans. A sizeable Black slave population supported
Franco-Caribbean culture, laboring in white plantation
owner’s fields throughout the Caribbean. But
particularly in New Orleans, there were two other levels
of the Black African population: an urban servant class
(mostly household servants in the Vieux Carré and
elsewhere in “the city” whether French-Créole,
“Yanqui,” or otherwise), and the gens de coleur libres
(“free peoples of color”)—a free Black population,
mostly artisans, craftsmen, and builders descended from
white-Créoles and Black servants under the socially-
approved extramarital placage system (where wealthy
white-Créole men, in addition to their “legitimate”
White wives and family, kept Black mistresses, the
resulting “mixed-race” children not being legitimized
through marriage but rather forming the quadroon,
octoroon, and other strata of gens de coleur libres).
A question worth asking, then: for all Edna’s experiences, how much of her “awakening”
nevertheless depends on maintaining a Black servant class to run things?
Who in the novel doesn’t seem to have servants? Why might this fact be important?
References in The Awakening : Music
Chopin either directly names, or indirectly alludes to, a number of musical works
in The Awakening. Pursuing these works—getting the reference—taps into themes,
motifs, and ideas running beneath the surface of the plot and narrative that add
depth to the diegesis she weaves. To consider: What does that piece of music
mean? Why have that person play or hear it? Also, what are the novel’s various
characters’ relationship to music? What does that relationship say about that
character, especially when compared/contrasted against other characters’
relationship to music?
Ch. IX: the Farival twins play “a duet from Zampa” and “the overture to The Poet and the Peasant ”
Who are they?
How does the
narrative
describe them?
Who composed this
opera? What is it about?
What was it known for?
What is its music like?
What ideas does it deal
with?
Who composed this piece?
What is it about? What was
it known for? What is its
music like? What ideas does
it deal with?
What ideas/themes do these
two works bring with them
into the novel? Separately?
Together?
Why is it important that these characters play
these pieces of music? How does it add to their
characterization? What happens to the ideas
we get from this music, when attached to these
characters?
References in The Awakening : Music
Ch. XXI: Edna visit Mlle Reisz, who plays
Frédéric Chopin
(1810-1849)
Impromptu -- but
which one?
●Fantasie Impromptu
[in C♯, Op.66]?
● Impromptu No.1,
Op.29?
her own improvisation,
then Chopin’s Impromptu,
then “the quivering love notes of Isolde’s song”
“and back again to the
Impromptu with its
soulful and poignant
longing”
Who’s he? What’s he
like? What’s he
known for?
What’s an
impromptu? What are
its characteristics?
(Slow/fast, high/low,
etc.)
Listen to it: what’s it
like?
Listen to it: what’s it
like?
Richard Wagner
(1813-1883)
“Isolde’s song” = the
“Liebestod” (“Love-death”):
“Mild und leise”
Act III, opera Tristan und
Isolde (1859)
Who’s he? What’s he
like? What’s he
known for?
What is this piece?
What does it sound
like? What are the
words (lyrics); what
do they mean?What’s
the context for this
song?
What is this opera
about? What
happens in it? what is
it known for?
● What does it mean for Reisz to play these? (On the piano rather than a full orchestra?) In that order? To Edna—while Edna reads letters from Robert?
● What ideas/themes does each piece bring in with it? What’s going on with those ideas in the order that Reisz plays them?
● Do the composers’ lives/biographies have any bearing here? Who were they, what were they like, what are they known for?
● If Reisz plays these pieces deliberately, in that order, what might she be “saying” or communicating to Edna? To herself? About what/whom?
● Does it mean anything that Reisz begins with her own composition, then drifts into these other well-known compositions by others?
● How does any of this meaning change depending on which Chopin impromptu Reisz plays?
● What does it mean that Reisz plays these pieces in the cycle she does?
● What’s going on in this one small scene when we add all these elements together?
References in The Awakening : other literature
During the dinner party scene in Ch.XXX, Gouvernail quotes two lines of poetry:
There was a graven image of Desire
Painted with red blood on a ground of gold.
Based on Koloski, Bernard J. “The Swinburne Lines in The Awakening.” American Literature vol. 45, no. 4, 1974, pp.608-610.
While it may seem that Gouvernail speaks these lines out of nowhere, in quoting
them he actually chooses his text carefully, and through him Chopin the author
brings the ideas within those lines into this specific scene in the novel.
Using the Koloski article (PDF) assigned for this section, ask the same questions
you did of the musical compositions that Chopin includes in her novel:
●What poem do these lines come from? By what poet?
● Is that poet’s biography, or the history of her/his work, play into the quotation?
●What’s the original context of these lines? What do they mean in their proper place? What
do they mean taken out of their original context? What do they mean in the context they’re
quoted in?
●What’s going on in the diegesis when Gouvernail quotes these lines? Do the lines fit the
scene?
