The Awakening in Reading with Style

Oct 15, 2013 Connie G rated it really liked it

Shelves: classic, alp-discussion, feminism-women, louisiana, book-club, rereading, 1001-books

Published in 1899, "The Awakening" is a story revolving around personal and sexual freedom for women. The book was set in New Orleans and nearby coastal areas where women--and any property they accumulated after marriage--were considered the property of their husbands. Divorce was almost non-existent in that Catholic area.

Edna and Leonce Pontellier are vacationing at a coastal resort with their two little sons. Leonce is a generous husband in material ways, but does not connect well emotionally Published in 1899, "The Awakening" is a story revolving around personal and sexual freedom for women. The book was set in New Orleans and nearby coastal areas where women--and any property they accumulated after marriage--were considered the property of their husbands. Divorce was almost non-existent in that Catholic area.

Edna and Leonce Pontellier are vacationing at a coastal resort with their two little sons. Leonce is a generous husband in material ways, but does not connect well emotionally with his wife. Edna falls in love with Robert Lebrun, a young man at the resort, who awakens Edna emotionally. Robert leaves for Mexico since he realizes that a relationship with a married woman would not have a good outcome in 19th Century society.

Edna befriends two women with contrasting lifestyles. Madame Ratignolle is a perfect wife and mother. Mademoiselle Reisz, a pianist, expresses herself through music and has a very independent life. Edna is unhappy in her life as a wife and mother, even though she has servants to do most of the work in the home. She has the opportunity to rebel when her husband goes on a long business trip and their children are sent to their grandmother's house for an extended stay. She begins a dalliance with Alcee Arobin, a man with a reputation of chasing married women. She asserts her independence by moving out of her large house into a smaller abode, expressing herself in her artwork, and is awakened as a sexual woman. When Robert returns later, she says, "I am no longer one of Mr Pontellier's possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose."

The book was very controversial because Edna left her husband and children for her own freedom, a move that would be socially shocking at the turn of the century. Even today, society looks down severely on women who abandon their children. Early in the book, it was stated, "Mrs Pontellier was not a mother-woman." Near the end of the book, it said, "Despondency had come upon her there in the wakeful night and never lifted....The children appeared before her like antagonists who had overcome her; who had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul's slavery for the rest of her days. But she knew a way to elude them."

The book has wonderful imagery of hunger and food, the draw of the sea, birds in flight, birds in cages, sleeping and awakening. Edna was a woman who could not live with the restrictions of 19th Century society. Finally she hears the call of the sea, "The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude. All along the white beach, up and down, there was no living thing in sight. A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water." ...more

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Sep 06, 2018 Ann rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, rws-fall-2018

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 01, 2015 Paola rated it it was ok

Shelves: classics

I didn't like the ending of this book. ...more

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Aug 25, 2013 Kate S rated it liked it

Shelves: 2013, 1001-books-to-read

I will re-read this in the future, because I want to look at it with different eyes. I know I would have been more receptive if I had not read so many books recently dealing with infidelity. Yes, they were all presented differently and the end results in each one was different, I was still on overload. I feel I missed some of the nuances because of this.

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Nov 05, 2014 Kim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-star, 1000books, challenged-or-banned-books, boxall

I read this book initially because it fit many categories in 2015 Reading Challenge including Book written more than 100 years ago and Challenged or Banned Book. But I was intrigued by Kate Chopin's treatment of the subject of women in the late 1800s. ...more

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