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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 [email protected]] 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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