Awakening

A detailed Summary of Awakening

"Go away! Go away! For Heaven's sake! That's all right!" These words, rambled out by a brash little parrot, mark the opening, of Kate Chopin's Victorian novel The Awakening. These lines immediately place in the reader's mind a notion that they will have some significance to the story later on, as odd as they may sound. (At least, they did to me). The Awakening is a story of a character who runs into many wallsof hardship on her journey of self-exploration. Edna Pontellier is a Southern wife and mother of two young boys. She is a young women of 28 who is bored with her ordinary life as an ordinary wife in her ordinary house with her ordinary husband.I have found that in most analysis produced by professionals and novices alike, Edna is perceived as a courageous woman struggling against society's consideration of a proper Southern wife, trying to fight the mold that it has forced on her as an obedient complement to her husband. Despite the overwhelming amount of opinions like this, and since few (if any) know Kate Chopin's actual intent, I find myself disagreeing with the majority, for various reasons that I shall point to throughout my analysis. I shall first, however, give the main reason for the way my interpretation is; in the V

ictorian era, although women were not respected and thought of as inferiors to men in almost every aspect, wives and mothers were held in the highest regards. Not only respected, but they were also considered socially superior to men and were like 'tamers' of the feral instincts of their savage husbands and sons. Once, a (male) writer from that era said the following: "A women is nothing. A wife is everything. A pretty girl is worth a thousand men. A mother, is next to a god." These are very powerful ideas of the feminine roles in society, granted they were the only roles considered suitable for women, as it required nothing but their natural feminine instincts, they were important. Thus, wives were respected by all men in society. ( I noticed that although Mr. Pontellier was demanding of his wife, only because he was use to being that way as he was on pg.491, "This is more than folly. I cannot permit you to stay out there all night. You must come in the house instantly!" he was not persistent after her response to him, "I don't wish to go in, and I don't intend to. Don't speak to me like that again; I shall not answer you.") I believe that Edna's awakening is not her struggle to brake the chains of society but her realization of her boredom of the simple life the that she leads. She awakened to a new vigor and lust for excitement. Her awakening is first exposed to the readers and perhaps to herself (the reader cannot be sure) in the beginning of the story while she is vacationing at Grand Isle as the reader sees the close friendship between her and Adele Ratignolle. Adele had the ideal life in Edna's eyes. She had a loving husband and children who adored her and most importantly, she was happy with her life. It was a life that Edna longed to have but did not. Ergo, she set out on a search for alternatives to satisfy the empty void inside of her. She became infatuated with a youth named Robert Lebrun, who served her as a companion, walking and talking with her and running small errands. Robert was outwardly handsome, vivacious and hardly ordinary. Edna finds warmth and comfort in his presents. He leaves for Mexico upon the request of an associate, leaving Edna disappoint

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1473
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English