The Awakening: A Solitary SoulThe Awakening charts Edna Pontellier's journey of self-discovery. The time spent with a younger friend on a summer holiday on Grand Isle in Lousiana unlocks a feeling in her that she can't close away again. On returning to her family home in New Orleans, she starts to transition from unthinking housewife and mother into something freer and more confident, although this doesn't meet with the full approval of the society she's a part of. Kate Chopin had written a novel previously, but she was mostly known as a writer of Louisiana-set short stories. The Awakening, while keeping the setting, charted new territory with its themes of marital infidelity and less-than-perfect devotion of a mother to her children. The consequent critical reception was less than enthusiastic-hardly surprising given the prevailing moral atmosphere of the time-and her next novel was cancelled. The Awakening was rediscovered in the 1960s and is now regarded as an important early example of American feminist literature. |
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Adèle afternoon Alcée Arobin arms artist asked Edna Awakening beach Beatrice Webb Beaudelet began chair Charlotte Brontë Chênière clatter Creole dinner Doctor door Edith Wharton Edna Edna's Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Gaskell exclaimed eyes face father feel felt female George Eliot girl gone good-by Grand Isle hair hand head Henry James Highcamp husband Kate Chopin kissed knew laughed leave Léonce letter literary looked Madame Lebrun Madame Ratignolle Madame Ratignolle's Madem Mademoiselle Reisz Mandelet Mariequita Merriman Monsieur Ratignolle morning mother never night novel oiselle Old Monsieur Farival Orleans play Pontellier Pontellier's quadroon Robert Sarah Grand seated seemed sexual shoulder si tu savais sleep soft solitude soul stay stood story Street talk tell things thought told Victor voice walked wife window woman women women's culture writing young