The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Synopsis:

This is a short story. It is set in New Orleans and on the Louisiana Gulf Coast at the end of the 1800s. It is about Edna Pontellier, a wife and mother married to Leonce, a New Orleans businessman and has two sons Etienne and Raoul.

She feels oppressed and burdened in her role as a wife and mother and the duties she has to fulfill as a housewife. She meets Robert Lebrun and begins an emotional affair with him and then afterwards has a physical affair with Alcee.

Although Robert expresses his love for Edna, he eventually ends up leaving her because he loves her too much to shame her by being in a relationship with a married woman.

The book ends with a devastated Edna committing suicide and drowning herself in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Review:

I enjoyed this book and loved the themes of the role of the wife and mother and the isolation Edna feels in that role.

“The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.”

“The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.”

“I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose. If he were to say, Here, Robert, I take her and be happy; she is yours, I should laugh at you both.”