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    The Awakening
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    The Awakening
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    The Awakening
    Ebook199 pages2 hours

    The Awakening

    By Kate Chopin

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    American author of short stories and novels, mostly of a Louisiana Creole background. She is now considered by some to have been a forerunner of feminist authors of the 20th century. From 1892 to 1895, she wrote short stories for both children and adults which were published in such magazines as Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, the Century, and Harper's Youth's Companion. Her major works were two short story collections, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897). Her important short stories included "Desiree's Baby", a tale of miscegenation in antebellum Louisiana (published in 1893); "The Story of an Hour" (1894), and "The Storm "(1898). "The Storm" is a sequel to "The 'Cadian Ball," which appeared in her first collection of short stories, Bayou Folk. Chopin also wrote two novels: At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899), which are set in New Orleans and Grand Isle, respectively. The people in her stories are usually inhabitants of Louisiana. Many of her works are set in Natchitoches in north central Louisiana. Within a decade of her death, Chopin was widely recognized as one of the leading writers of her time.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAugusto Baldassari
    Release dateAug 26, 2015
    ISBN9786050408430
    Author

    Kate Chopin

    Kate Chopin was born in St. Louis, Missouri,In 1851. She began writing shortly after herHusband's death and, from 1889 until her ownDeath, her stories and other miscellaneousWritings appeared in Vogue, Youth's companion,Atlantic Monthly, Century, Saturday EveningPost, and other publications. In addition to The Awakening, Mrs. Chopin published another novel, At Fault, and two collections of short stories and sketches, Bayou Folk and A Night at Acadie. The publication of The Awakening in 1899 occasioned shocked and angry response from reviewers all over the country. The book was taken off the shelves of the St. Louis mercantile library and its author was barred from the fine arts club. Kate Chopin died in 1904.

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    Reviews for The Awakening

    3.5/5

    2,472 ratings91 reviews

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    • 2/5
      An appeasing novella, but dated and lacking in many instances. Altogether, did not enjoy very much.
    • 2/5
      This spare 19th century novel tells the story of Edna Pontellier of New Orleans, who discovers she wants something more out of life. She is married to a prosperous and respectable stockbroker, but takes a lover when her husband is away on business. The story isn't that simple of simplistic, but it's close. Chopin's evocation of place and person leave something to be desired, and takes our understanding of the mores of the time very much for granted.This doesn't seem like enough of a literary or social transgression to ruin its author's career, but that's what it apparently did. Perhaps it's the lead character's attitude throughout, that was just too much to countenance. Not recommended, not from this quarter.
    • 4/5
      I really like this.
    • 4/5
      Well written romantic. feminist tragedy. Considered a classic. The main character needed a good therapist. :-)
    • 4/5
      I read this book in either junior high or high school and, even though my circumstances were very different than the protagonist's, I identified so strongly with the feeling of being confined and restricted and just wanting to break free.
    • 5/5
      Probably one of the most important books I've read... and I always forget about it! Forced to read in high school I fell in love with literature. And then, re-read as an adult... as a writer... simply unforgettable. I turn to it again and again for work with transitions and scenery. Brilliant.
    • 4/5
      I know this book supposed to be about the woman's sexual awakening and her awakening to the fact that, as a good wife and mother she's expected to subsume herself in the happiness of her family and she refuses to do such a thing. I was a little disappointed, though, that the only way she could think of expressing herself and asserting her individuality was through romance which I find to be many a woman's downfall and far from the meaning of life.
    • 5/5
      This is a landmark work, ahead of its time, and with themes on marriage, adultery, and most importantly the pursuit of one’s own identity and control of one’s own life in spite of societal pressure which resonate today. In 1899, a woman questioning her feelings of sadness in a marriage and then doing something about it was shocking, both to characters in the novel (her husband thinks she’s losing her mind when she moves out, and her own father suggests to his son-in-law that authority and coercion are needed), and to readers, who rejected and vilified The Awakening, leading Chopin to spend the remaining five years of her life in relative seclusion prior to her premature death at the age of 54.Powerful stuff and very well written, with the Louisiana setting adding to its charm. Deserves a higher average rating on LT!Quotes:On adultery, and seduction, I love the light touch of these words, and how they scandalized the world at the time:“His hand strayed to her beautiful shoulders, and he could feel the response of her flesh to his touch. He seated himself beside her and kissed her lightly upon the shoulder. ‘I thought you were going away,’ she said, in an uneven voice.‘I am, after I have said good night.’‘Good night,’ she murmured.He did not answer, except to continue to caress her. He did not say good night until she had become supple to his gentle, seductive entreaties.”On divorce, and ‘owning oneself’, again, shocking at the time:“She took his face between her hands and looked into it as if she would never withdraw her eyes more. She kissed him on the forehead, the eyes, the cheeks and the lips.‘You have been a very, very foolish boy, wasting your time dreaming of impossible things when you speak of Mr. Pontellier setting me free! 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, take her and be happy; she is yours,’ I should laugh at you both.”On infatuation:“As Edna walked along the street she was thinking of Robert. She was still under the spell of her infatuation. She had tried to forget him, realizing the inutility of remembering. But the thought of him was like an obsession, ever pressing itself upon her. It was not that she dwelt upon details of their acquaintance, or recalled in any special or peculiar way his personality; it was his being, his existence, which dominated her thought, fading sometimes as if it would melt into the mist of the forgotten, reviving again with an intensity which filled her with an incomprehensible longing.”On love, and separation:“Does he write to you? Never a line. Does he send you a message? Never a word. It is because he loves you, poor fool, and is trying to forget you, since you are not free to listen to him or to belong to him.”On marriage, and settling:“She was a grown young woman when she was overtaken by what she supposed to be the climax of her fate. It was when the face and figure of a great tragedian began to haunt her imagination and stir her senses. The persistence of the infatuation lent it an air of genuineness. The hopelessness of it colored it with the lofty tones of a great passion.…Her marriage to Leonce Pontellier was purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate. …. 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. …The acme of bliss, which would have been a marriage with the tragedian, was not for her in this world. As the devoted wife of a man who worshipped her, she felt she would take her place with a certain dignity in the world of reality, closing the portals forever behind her upon the realm of romance and dreams.”On self-knowledge, on awakening:“A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her – the light which, showing the way, forbids it.At that early period it served but to bewilder her. It moved her to dreams, to thoughtfulness, to the shadowy anguish which had overcome her the midnight when she had abandoned herself to tears. In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being……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 inner contemplation. The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.”And this one:“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.”And:“…perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life.”Lastly, I like this description of a night walk to the beach:“There were strange, rare odors abroad – a tangle of the sea smell and of weeds and damp, new-plowed earth, mingled with the heavy perfume of a field of white blossoms somewhere near. But the night sat lightly upon the sea and the land. There was no weight of darkness; there were no shadows. The white light of the moon had fallen upon the world like a mystery and the softness of sleep.”
    • 5/5
      I was first introduced to this book at the library. Students would pour in with their required reading assignment in hand and would flock to this book. I think they chose it because it was short and it had the potential to have sex scenes in it. Those are both terrible reasons to pick up this book. In many not so subtle ways the book immediately demonstrates that Mr. Pontellier is quite a jerk. That general theme reminds me a lot of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse where the men bluster and have expectations that aren’t to be questioned. There is the expectation of women to take care of everything to please her husband, as if that was the only purpose of a wife. The situation translates so well over time where women were viewed as objects, robots, there to serve a function. Anyone who rebelled against this was thought to tear at the seams of good society. However, just like many other classics (Madame Bovary) the woman who is unhappy with this domestic arrangement makes mistakes in just hoping for a change. Those mistakes always lead to tragic results. I really enjoyed the book for the lyrical language and the plight of poor Mrs. Pontellier. The Awakening is the prototype of feminist novels and I am sorry I put it off for so long.Favorite passages:"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. This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight--perhaps more wisdom than the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman. p. 18"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 voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace." p. 18"With a writhing motion she settled herself more securely in the hammock. She perceived that her will had blazed up, stubborn and resistant. She could not at that moment have done other than denied and resisted. She wondered if her husband had ever spoken to her like that before, and if she had submitted to his command. Of course she had; she remembered that she had. But she could not realize why or how she should have yielded, feeling as she then did." p. 35"and she tried to discover wherein this summer had been different from any and every other summer of her life. 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. 44"The past was nothing to her; offered no lesson which she was willing to heed. The future was a mystery which she never attempted to penetrate. The present alone was significant; was hers, to torture her as it was doing then with the biting conviction that she had lost that which she had held, that she had been denied that which her impassioned, newly awakened being demanded." p. 48"Mr Pontellier had been a rather courteous husband so long as he met a certain submissiveness in his wife But her and unexpected line of conduct completely bewildered him It shocked him her absolute disregard for her duties a wife angered him. When Mr Pontelier became rude Edna grew insolent She had resolved never to take another step backward" p. 75"It sometimes entered Mr Pontellier's to wonder if his wife were not growing a little unbalanced mentally. He could plainly that she was not herself. That is he could not see that she was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world." p. 80"Or else she stayed indoors and nursed a mood with which she was becoming too familiar for her own comfort and peace of mind. It was not despair but it seemed to her as if life were passing by leaving its promise broken and unfulfilled." p.100"She felt as if a mist had been lifted from her eyes enabling her to look upon and comprehend the significance of life that monster made up of beauty and brutality." p. 125 "Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. She began to look with her own eyes to see and to apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life." p. 150"She had pictured him seeking her at the very first hour and he had lived under the same sky since day before yesterday while only by accident had he stumbled upon her." p. 175"You have been a very very foolish boy your time dreaming of impossible things when you speak of Mr Pontellier setting me free. I am no longer one of Mr possessions to dispose of or not give myself where I choose If he were to say "Here Robert take her and be happy; she is yours!" I should laugh at you both." p. 185
    • 2/5
      Edna Pontellier starts out as an ordinary housewife with a kindly husband and two children. Her life is insipid and dull, but see that she is contented in it only because she knows nothing else. However, when she falls in love with Robert Lebrun, she awakens to her latent sexuality and begins to wish for freedom from the restraints of family, of duty, of domesticity. As Edna becomes aware of her liberty and power as a woman, she fights the role that she has been thrust into. She wishes to free herself from all responsibilities that chain her from the true emancipation she desires. However, Edna's only freedom is in choosing her bonds. Edna finds that she is still captive when she tries to shake off restraint. Though she feels her marriage to be no bar to her enjoyment of life, her love for Robert and the responsibility for her children become the tightest manacles of all.
      The writing is lyrical, but although I sympathize with Edna's struggle, her feeling of being trapped between two worlds, I also find that her willful selfishness makes her a somewhat unsympathetic character. Torn between two worlds, her act of "bravery" is succumbing to passion; she behaves like a child instead of an adult.
      The Awakening is a classic; its dreamy, poetic writing and evocative imagery is strong, but I was unable to actually like the characters.
    • 2/5
      I understand Mrs. P's 'Awakening' to her true self and identity and wants, but I don't think I have read about such a selfish and irresponsible character since Madame Bovary! It is really interesting how the two books take such similar twists ( that end with me feeling similar irritation and disrespect for the main characters), and yet I still really like both books; it is very infuriating to read a book and be upset by the turn of events because the characters are ridiculously simple minded and yet not be able to say you hate it! So yes, I liked this book, but golly it is so melodramatic and if Mrs. P is not bipolar then no one must be!
    • 3/5
      This book falls under the sub-genre of 'books about women whose lives end tragically when society limits them in their choice of who they may love.' There are many great books in this category - Madame Bovary, The Age of Innocence, and Anna Karenina - just to name a few. Although I liked this story, I didn't feel the same empathy as I did with other great heroines. I have to say that it might have been because the audio narration was flat - the different character voices didn't display the angst that the protagonist, Edna Pontellier was experiencing. I have heard wonderful reviews of this book - and might have to give it another shot.
    • 4/5
      The writing is superb - all these elements - images, events, phrases - that lead the reader to consider the theme of waking up in all the many ways that one can "wake up". Long essays can and have been written on the ideas contained in this novel, so I won't attempt - but a few impressions. Edna has woken up and she is determined to be her own person - so much so that she would rather not be than be something she hasn't chosen. That is certainly taking the idea to its extreme extrapolation. While the book feels very real in some respects, there is a sense of unreality about Edna's single minded pursuit of individuality. Lots to think about in this novel.
    • 4/5
      A married woman has an awakening of spirit after falling in love with a young man on a vacation by the seaside, which leads her to new social and spiritual freedoms. It's interesting that despite her husband's insistence that his wife must be ill to behave this way, many of her friends and allies (and some strangers/acquaintances) remain true and support her. Told with sparse prose, this story is considered a strong feminist tale, and considering the period in which it was written, it certainly is. Though it's old fashioned by today's standards, it's still a beautiful, touching story.
    • 3/5
      This is a story of Edna Pontellier, a affluent middle aged woman who is depressed and is going through mid life crisis. She readily fall in love with younger men and encourages other men. This book when it was published in 1899 had created a great scandal but today it will just count as a sad story of a depressed woman.
    • 2/5
      Read in Mrs. Eagleton's women-author-centered senior English class, along with "The Yellow Wallpaper" and...Nine Stories? Perhaps not women-centered after all, although she did make a great deal of Esme as a budding feminist (wtf).

      For some reason I thought this book was super-funny and liked to read it while imagining robust Creole accents in my head.
    • 4/5
      Rating: 4 of 5I'm quite surprised by how much Edna still resonates even in today's world. The ending felt rushed, even five more pages would've deepened its impact. Overall, I enjoyed this story for what it was."The acme of bliss, which would have been a marriage with the tragedian, was not for her in this world. As the devoted wife of a man who worshiped her, she felt she would take her place with a certain dignity in the world of reality, closing the portals forever behind her upon the realm of romance and dreams (p. 18)."
    • 2/5
      Dry and painful to read. The Awakening, a droll recounting of personal mistakes, will surely put anyone to sleep who attempts to read it.
    • 2/5
      Really did not sympathize with the protagonist.
    • 5/5
      As much as I enjoyed "A Doll's House," I actually enjoyed this one even more. It is amazing to me to read about women who finally decide to leave their gilded cage and in turn do something so dramatic. I don't want to give the ending away for those who haven't read it yet, but suffice it to say that it is very intense and a beautiful tragedy. I have read this many times and I still enjoy it each time.
    • 2/5
      I'm more than a little annoyed. The first part of this book was just... well, you're just ambling along, and nothing is really happening. You get about halfway through, and then our main character, Edna, finally starts to--dun dun DUNNNN!--awaken. And it causes quite the stir and it makes things much more entertaining because she's doing what she wants, when she wants, and nobody can stop her or tell her otherwise what she can and can't do, or what she will and won't do. She follows no one else's desires but her own and it's only her judgment that reigns supreme. Hell, she goes so far as to almost have a lover even!

      But there's the flaw in Edna. She ALMOST does things, she never goes the full length, never completely embraces her decisions. Every single thing she does seems half-hearted! Oh wooow, you decided not to listen to your husband and to do what you like. Great! Good! Won't make a difference either way! But you didn't divorce him. You didn't give him a chance to remarry and get a new wife and mother for his kids if you didn't want to do either of those jobs anymore. And what about you moving out of the house, Edna? You took all your things and didn't use any of your husband's money. Nice move of independence! But you moved down the street, in the same neighborhood, perfectly in reach of your husband. If you REALLY wanted to leave this life behind, why not change towns? Change states? Heck, you didn't have to move DOWN THE BLOCK. What kind of person does that when they're trying to show their independence?! Down the block. SHEESH. Could ANYONE make a more pathetic move as a show of INDEPENDENCE? *Rolls eyes* On top of that! She tries to take a lover, twice. And yet, as far as we know, she never gets as far as even SLEEPING with them! Mind you, I'm not complaining about that. I think cheating on your husband is a despicable action, especially since in Edna's case it was HER choice to marry him. If you commit yourself to something like that, and then have two kids with the man, then you PROBABLY know what you're getting yourself into, and you should at LEAST have the dang decency to be RESPONSIBLE for it! D:< It annoys me that she just shrugs that off!! But come on, all this infidelity talk aside, if you're going to be "Oh so naughty~" as to take a lover to show your husband he means nothing to you, then COME ON. What kinda half-hearted effort is it to not even sleep with the man. -3-

      And she just does this over and over and over. All these pathetic efforts to rebel against whoever it is she's trying to prove a point to, and they never quite send the message. She never goes far enough, and I'm not sure if it's because she just doesn't have the capability to be that forward, or if she was never planning to be that obstinate in the first place. *Shrugs* It just leads to this ridiculous feeling of growing and peaking irritation at the end of the book with the STUPID decision she makes to "solve" everything once and for all. *Rolls eyes* I'm not going to tell you what the ending is, since I don't believe in spoilers, however, know this: Her solution is just as ridiculous as all her efforts have been before, and, in my eyes, it's the ULTIMATE STUPID ACTION A PERSON COULD TAKE. She ought to be slapped for being such an idiot!!!!

      This book, while I get the message it was trying to send, juts does a poor, POOR job of conveying a woman of any strength at all. The ending completely destroys whatever message that the book is trying to send, and Edna's overall determination to BE PATHETIC and make that choice is influenced by what? By the fact that the guy that she's loved for, oh, how long? Since... JUST THIS WEEK (if we're to go by how she felt at the start of the book, for not even a year passes from beginning to end)!! The point is, she makes a majorly LIFE-CHANGING, STUPID decision... JUSTBECAUSESOMEGUYDOESN'TWANTTOMAKEBABIESWITHHER. =__= .......my intense annoyance is RADIATING INTO A NUCLEAR BOMB.

      I am IMMENSELY upset at this book for the message it sends. For an author who was supposedly of the feminist persuasion, she sure does a pathetic job of arguing for her beliefs! What a crock!

      Listen, it's a decent book. It's short, it's easy to read, and it's really not hard to get through, regardless the way the main character acts. It's not as unbearably pathetic and moronic as are many of the books being written today with similarly half-assed main female leads. If you want to check it out, then I say go for it! It's a book that's a decent enough read, if you're not going to give any credit to storyline or the message it's sending, which, essentially beats the purpose for why the book is written, but hey, who's checking now-a-days anyway. It's still a far cry better written and less painful than some of the similar-in-theme stories written today, and at least Edna gets an ending that suits her pathetic nature, unlike in stories today where the Stupid Girls get the "Good Endings" and so on.

      Read it! But don't buy it before you've checked it out. It just may be your cup of tea, but then again, it also may not be. You'll have to experience it for yourself before you decide.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely fell in love with book when I first read it in 11th grade. I love Edna and her persistence to become independent from her family. She goes on to live by herself and leave her family behind, which was considered sacrilegious during Edna's life.
    • 5/5
      I have always loved this book. I am from Louisiana and we have a vacation home on Grand Isle (where I am sitting now and writing this). I know that many think of this as a feminist work and I do agree. However I have always had a problem with the ending. Chopin must let Edna die because that is what the readers of that time needed. Any other ending for Edna would have been even more scandalous. I would have loved to know what Chopin was thinking here. Was it to satisfy her readers moral expectations, or was there another meaning that was more personal? This is one I have read more than once and will read again I am sure.
    • 1/5
      SHUDDER! Egads, I had to read this again and again in my undergrad literature career. Each time I found the main character not only unsympathetic, but revolting. Gah! And no, I'm not handing in my feminist card just because I hate this book!
    • 3/5
      Written just before the turn of the century (1899), this book was a bold statement by Kate Chopin. It was on banned books lists for years because the author dared to give voice to the unspoken ideas that women have lives, minds, thoughts and desires that cannot be dictated by the men in their lives. Some have called it the original of the "romance" genre. As far as literature goes, I found it difficult in the beginning and it totally failed to stir any real emotion for the characters. As far as history goes and a look into the lives and minds of the women in our past, it is worthy of the time spent. Enlightening, but not terribly entertaining.
    • 4/5
      The Awakening is a defining work of feminism. It features the awakening of Edna Pontellier from her role as a traditional wife, mother, and woman in Louisiana.After taking a trip to a resort for a summer, she falls in love with the handsome Robert Lebrun, who in turn falls in love with her. Upon returning to her world, she determines that her life is not to be made up by societal roles, or by any sort of label, and one by one, she sheds the layers of her former self.Chopin's prose here wishes to free women from their labels, and let the world know that they are not property, or childbearers, or arm candy, but are in fact living, breathing people with the same rights as men.This book is recommended for readers of feminist literature (such as Charlotte Perkins Gillman).
    • 3/5
      I read this in high school as an English class assignment. On its own, it seemed like an okay book. The character, Edna, is a bit irritating in terms of characters who let things happen to them, but the way she takes control of her own destiny and the fallout from doing so is interesting, especially in the context of the time period. My own reaction to the book was colored by the fact that an English class has to tear it apart and find every ounce of symbolism that may or may not exist, but I think as a book on its own, it could be very enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      The Awakening. Kate Chopin. 1899. I feel like I might be the last person on earth to have read this book. I must have sent it and/or critical information about the book to at least one library each of the 33 years I worked at APLS. As most people know, “the awakening” is Edna Pontellier ‘s slowly growing awareness of herself as a woman who is dissatisfied with her life as a wife, mother, and a member of a rather rigid society. It is classified as an early feminist novel, but it so much more. I not only enjoyed reading about Edna, I really enjoyed the New Orleans setting. I’ll read more of Chopin.
    • 3/5
      A novel of growth, both personal and emotional, Kate Chopin's The Awakening follows the journey of Edna Pontellier, who after spending a summer vacationing with her husband and children, decides to give up the archetypical role of wife and mother and strikes out on her own, realizing there is more to life than what society deems appropriate for a woman. The principal reasoning for her "awakening" is the realization that she is in love with another man, and believes that he loves her in return. Feeling overpowered by her own life and obligations to family, she does what few women did in that time, and moved out of her home into another house, and begins a life that is her own.When The Awakening was first published, is was looked on as being "unwholesome," both in its independent attitude towards women and its rather frank attitude towards Edna Pontellier's sexual nature. In today's regard, the novel wouldn't be seen as being all that shocking, but it still speaks clearly for the need of independence and freedom in one's own life.To be frank, I had a hard time getting into the book. I think I found the flow of the writing to be distracting, and halfway through reading switched to an audio book, and was able to follow the story much more clearly this way. The story did prove to be powerful in its telling, and in how Edna finally moves forward with her life.
    • 3/5
      Good read. A woman trapped in a role as mother and wife and is not content. Taking into consideration that it was first published in 1899, this novel speaks volumes on women and self identity.