4.5–Spotlight on Kate Chopin and The Awakening

Kimberly Clough and Claire Carly-Miles

Biography: Kate Chopin (1850–1904)

Kate Chopin was born Katherine O’Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1850 and spent her childhood and young adulthood there. In 1870 she met and married Oscar Chopin and moved with him to his home in New Orleans, Louisiana. Later, when Oscar failed to succeed in business, the family moved to his old home, a plantation near Cloutierville, Louisiana, where they lived until his death from swamp fever in 1882. During their twelve-year marriage, Chopin gave birth to seven children—five sons and two daughters. Chopin stayed on at the plantation for about a year after Oscar’s death, attempting to keep it running, but in 1883, she and her children returned to her childhood home city of St. Louis. Shortly thereafter, she began writing, publishing two collections of short stories (Bayou Folk in 1894 and A Night in Acadie in 1897) and numerous stories in children’s magazines.

Between 1889 and 1890, Chopin wrote and published her first novella, At Fault.[1] This novella was set in two places: it begins on a plantation named Place du Bois near the Cane River (thus, in the general area that Chopin herself had occupied during her marriage and the first year of her widowhood) and then moves to St. Louis (just as Chopin did, after she was widowed). At Fault explores a widow’s struggle between her sexuality and her obligations to others, themes that would emerge again in The Awakening, published ten years later in 1899. By this date, she had become well-known and appreciated as an accomplished writer of local color and children’s stories. The widely negative (and often vicious) reception of The Awakening, discussed below, was a painful shock and a disappointment to Chopin, and it resulted, unfortunately, in her writing less and less before her untimely death at the age of 54 from a brain hemorrhage. While The Awakening was received poorly (as you’ll read below in the next section) and fell out of circulation quickly after its publication, it gained scholarly attention once again in the 1950s and, by the 1980s, had been canonized as a critical contribution to discussions about women, sexuality, and gender roles.[2]

The Reception of The Awakening

When The Awakening was first published in 1899, book reviewers had mixed reactions. An unnamed writer, who identifies as a woman in her review, seemed pleasantly surprised at the scandalous content in the novella: “The only thing that surprised me in looking it over was that it could be written by Kate Chopin, who once contented herself with giving us mild yarns and pages clean enough to put in a Sunday-school library. And now she writes things we women used only whisper in our boudoirs. But we women are getting on, aren’t we?”[3] The press’s consensus, however, was disapproving. The Chicago Daily Tribune reviewer wrote, “I do not know whether Mrs. Chopin intends that we shall have any sympathy for Mrs. Pontellier or not. To my mind she deserves none…. Her conduct seems to have been that of a wanton.”[4] The negative critiques rarely condemned Chopin’s writing skill but censured the novella’s theme and its perceived (im)moral lesson; in fact, many unfavorable reviews praised the style of The Awakening. The book reviewer for the San Francisco Call wrote of Chopin’s novella, “The story is vulgar, but the style in which it is handled is refined and graceful.”[5] Similarly, Henry A. Wise wrote that The Awakening “is a brilliant piece of writing, but unwholesome in its influence. We cannot commend it.”[6]

In response to the negative reactions to The Awakening, Chopin issued a tongue-in-cheek retraction statement in a literary newspaper just months after her novella’s publication.

Kate Chopin’s Response to Negative Reviews of The Awakening

Having a group of people at my disposal, I thought it might be entertaining (to myself) to throw them together and see what would happen. I never dreamed of Mrs. Pontellier making such a mess of things and working out her own damnation as she did. If I had had the slightest intimation of such a thing I would have excluded her from the company. But when I found out what she was up to, the play was half over and it was then too late.[7]

Within the context of pejorative press censuring the morality of her work, Chopin received two letters from across the Atlantic, forwarded to her from her publisher. Scholars are still perplexed about the origin of these letters. As of yet, no evidence exists to confirm that the letter writers—Janet Scammon Young and Dunrobin Thomson—ever existed or that they were who they said they were. This has led to multiple speculations about who wrote these letters. Prominent Chopin scholars Per Seyersted and Emily Toth hypothesize Chopin’s friends might have composed the letters, meaning to lift her spirits after The Awakening’s poor reception.[8] Other literary scholars even suggest that Chopin may have written the letters herself.[9] For clarity’s sake, the rest of this section will refer to the letter writers by the names provided in their content—Young and Thomson. While we may not be able to confirm the identity of the writers, the letters are intriguing artifacts in the history of The Awakening’s reception.

In what follows, you can read the transcription of the two handwritten letters Chopin received. If you are interested in seeing the original letters, the digitized copies are available online through the Missouri Historical Society Archives. Of particular interest in the archived copy of Young’s letter is the envelope, complete with stamps and postmarks. Because Young’s letter refers to phrases that Thomson uses, the Thomson letter appears first. In transcribing the letters, the original punctuation, spelling, ampersands, and underlines were retained with the exception of removing hyphens for words completed on the following line or page. The following letter was dated 5 October 1899 and written on stationery from Langham Hotel, London, England.

Letter to Lady Janet Scammon Young from Dunrobin Thomson (1899)

My dear Lady Janet:

It is commonplace to say that I am indebted to you for a great pleasure in the loan of the remarkable book “The Awakening”. I have read it twice—once at a sitting where I ought to have been asleep, and again more deliberately in my brougham. Doubtless it will be published over here, but I am having my bookseller get his copies of the American edition—one for Crestwood and one for town. It is easily the book of the year. The ending reminds one of “The Open Question”, but how vastly superior in power, ethic and art is this newer book.

You accuse “Kate Chopin” (a pen name I suppose) of an unnecessary tragedy. My dear Lady Janet, the authoress took the world as it is, as all art must—and ‘twas inevitable that poor dear Edna, being noble, and having Pontellier for husband, and Arobin for lover, and average women for friends, should die.

My wrath is not toward “Kate Chopin” at all. That which makes “The Awakening” legitimate is that the author deals with the commonest of human experiences. You fancy Edna’s case exceptional? Trust an old doctor—most common. It is only that Edna was nobler, and took that last clean swim. The others live. Not all meet Arobin or Robert. The essence of the matter lies in the accursed stupidity of men. They marry a girl, she becomes a mother. They imagine she has sounded the heights and depths of womanhood. Poor fools! She is not even awakened. She, on her part is a victim of the abominable prudishness which masquerades as modesty or virtue. Every great and beautiful fact of nature has a vile counterfeit. The counterfeit of goodness is self righteousness—of true modesty, prudishness. The law, spoken or implied, which governs the upbringing of girls is that passion is disgraceful. It is to be assumed that a self respecting female has it not. In so far as normally constituted womanhood must take account of something sexual, it is called “love”. It was inevitable, therefore, that Edna should call her feeling for Robert love. It was simply & purely passion as her feeling for Arobin. “Kate Chopin” would not admit that. Being (I assume) a woman, she too would reserve the word love for Edna’s feeling for Robert.

The especial point of a wife’s danger when her beautiful, God given commandment awakes, is that she will save her self respect by imagining herself in love with the awakener. She should be taught by her husband to distinguish between passion and love. Then she is safe, invulnerable. Even if, at the worst she “falls”—she will rise again.

It is inevitable, natural, and therefore clean and harmless, that a normal, healthfully constituted married woman will be stirred in her passional being by the men between whom and herself there is that mysterious affinity of the real nature of which we know nothing. If she calls that stirring of her nature “love” she is lost. If she knows perfectly well that it is passion; if she esteems and respects her passional capacity as she does her capacity to be moved by a song or sunset, or a great poem, or a word nobly said—she is safe. She knows what that thing is. She is no more ashamed of it than of her responsiveness to any other great appeal. She knows that it does not touch her wife-life, her mother-life, her true self-hood. It is not “naughty”.

A wise husband (there are some) is at no point so loving and tenderly wise as at this point. A cad or a cur is (God save the mark) jealous. If his wife is weak she quails, and hides from men, or shelters herself in a pretended indifference. If she is strong she resents the monstrous insult of his suspicion. I am happier over nothing in my professional life than that I have helped many men at this point—many men, many women. I have said to more than one man: Your wife’s nature is stirring: lovingly help her. Let her see that you know it and like it; and that you distinguish perfectly between her heart, her wifely loyalty, and her body—make her distinguish too.

But I weary you. This book has stirred me to the soul. Edna is like a personal friend. She is not impure. The art, the local colour, the distinctness of characterisation of even the minor personages are something wonderful.

Thanking you again, dear Lady Janet,

I am as ever yours faithfully

Dunrobin Thomson

My house is closed—I am here till Oct 15 when Betty comes back with Lucy.[10]

As you will read in the following letter, Young quotes Thomson with phrases such as “passional being.” Both letter writers praise Chopin not only for her skill as a fiction writer but also as an acute observer of human nature. They confirm the veracity of Edna’s internal conflict with lived experiences by providing examples from their own lives. Thomson compares Edna’s actions to his patients to verify the commonality of her feelings, while Young, as you will read in the following pages, provides a specific example of a young woman and her husband “Phil” to illustrate how Léonce might have treated Edna more compassionately. As a note, the em dashes in the following transcription represent handwritten lines (as opposed to indicating illegible sections of the document).

Letter from Janet Scammon Young to Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin;

I feel sure I ought to send you the inclosed letter from the great consulting physician of England, who is also one of the purest and best of men, and who has been said by a great editor to be “the soundest critic since Matthew Arnold.”

Your book has deeply stirred some other noble souls to whom I have lent it. Like Doctor T—— I assume that it is to be republished over here. Maarten Maartens, who was here last week, said “The Awakening” ought to be translated into Dutch, Scandinavian and Russian—so at least he was reported to me.

But great as is my interest in this book I confess to a still deeper interest in one which you ought to write—which you alone among living novelists could write. Evidently like all of us you believe Edna to have been worth saving—believe her to have been too noble to go to her death as she did. I quite bow to Doctor T’s better sense of art. The conventions required her to die. But suppose her husband had been conceived on higher lines? Suppose Dr Mandelet had said other things to him—had said, for example: “Pontellier, like most men you fancy that because you have possessed your wife hundreds of times she necessarily long ago came to entire womanly self knowledge that your embraces have as a matter of course answered whatever of passion she may be endowed with. You are mistaken. She is just becoming conscious of sex—is just finding herself compelled to take account of masculinity as such. You cannot arrest that process whatever you do; you should not wish to do so, assist this birth of your wife’s deeper womanliness. Be tender. Let her know that you see how Robert, Arobin affect her. Laugh with her over the evident influence of her womanhood over them. Tell her how, in itself it is natural that is divinely made & therefore innocent and pure and the very basis of social life—else why is true society absolutely nonexistent without both sexes. There is no society in Turkey. Shew her the nonsense of ascribing all this interinfluence to “the feminine mind acting up on the masculine mind”—a saying that so severe a thinker as Herbert Spencer ridicules. Above all trust her, let her see that you do. Only the inherently base woman betrays a trust. Leave her with Robert, with Arobin. Trusted [underlined twice] she will never fail you—distrusted, ignored, left in ignorance of what her new unrest really means she will fall. Follow my advice and in a year you will have a new wife with whom you will fall in love again; & you will be a new husband, manlier, more virile and impassioned with whom she will fall in love again.” Suppose Dr. Mandelet had thus spoken, and Pontellier had thus acted?

Of course in its brutal literal significance we wholly reject and loathe the French maxim: “The lover completes the wife”, and yet if we know the true facts of nature we must confess that there is a profound inner truth in it. No woman comes to her full womanly empire and charm who has not felt in what Dr T—— calls “her passional nature” the arousing power of more than one man. But Oh how important to her purity, her honor, her inner self-respect that she shall (again quoting Dr T——) “distinguish between passion and love”. So that instead of guiltily saying, “I fear I love that man” she shall say within herself with no sense of guilt—”How that man’s masculinity stirs me”—say it above all to her husband. Now all this, which I am saying so clumsily needs saying powerfully; needs to be taught by that most potent method of expression open to man—a great novel. You can write it. You alone. You are free from decadence. Your mind and heart are healthful, free, clean, sympathetic. Give us a great hearted manly man—give us a great natured woman for his wife. Give us the awakening of her whole nature, let her go to the utmost short of actual adultery—shew that her danger is in her ignorance of the great distinctions of which Dr T—— speaks. Shew us how such a husband can save such a wife and turn the influence of sex to its intended beneficent end. I trust I need not say that my suggestions that she go very very far is not for the sake of scenes of passion, but that readers may be helped whose self respect is shipwrecked or near it because they have gone far and are saying “I might as well go all the way.”

Let me give you this from real life. A wife of three years, mother of one babe found her “passional nature” (Dr. T——’s word) disturbed, excited, by a certain man of her circle. She at last desperately said to her husband, “Pray dont invite Capt ——— any more.” He said nothing then, but the light flashed up on him, and he remembered how his beautiful darling had been either unwontedly warm and tender, or irritable and unreasonable, after she had been dancing or dining with Capt ———. Fortunately he was a man and not what my husband calls a “Turk”. So he was very loving and tender in those days until one night when she lay lovingly in his arms he said “Sweetheart, dont some men make you passionate? Of course I know it must be so. You would not be the grand little woman you are if it were not so.”

“Oh Phil” she said—“aren’t we women horrid that it should be so?”

And then he told her what (I agree with Dr T——) all husbands ought to tell their wives—that passion is no sin—that between being made passionate by the presence of a virile man, and feeling passion for him is a distance as wide as space. Then she saw it and Oh such a burden of causeless self reproach rolled away. “Oh Phil” she said, “I never felt a moment’s wish to sin with any man. But when I dance with a fine fellow, or sit by one, and I know he is looking down into my bosom, I feel what I have supposed was a very guilty glow all through—have felt conscious of my sex—have felt pleased and animated and have—oh made it easy for them to look—but I never wished to sin with them.”

And she told him it was Captain ——— who most affected her that way. And then, woman like, she was frightened at her avowal, and wondered if in his heart her husband did not despise her.

Not long after that he told her that some of his friends were coming to play at cards, and he said “Now Sweetheart I want you to be simply ravishing when you preside at a little late supper. Have something very nice for us about midnight. You need not come down till then.”

Whereupon he invited Capt ——— and two other men whom he knew perfectly well were quite in the Captain’s class in effect upon his dear wife.

About half-past eleven he went to her room, laughingly made her change her gown for the very most dècôlletè one she had; and when later she came to the library where the men were to speak to them before supper—lo! there was her Captain! They had a merry supper, the “glow” came of course, but now she yielded to it unafraid and unashamed. She had never seen her husband happier, and at last he sent her up to the nursery with the Captain to shew him her dimpled two year old baby boy asleep. The other gentlemen begged to go but her husband said No—he was not going to have a mob of noisy men disturbing his baby. Oh how her heart sang the praises of her husband as she went, and she was not afraid of herself nor of the Captain, strong as the “glow” was when she bent over the little bed, and knew that the Captain was looking far less at the little sleeping babe than at her pretty charms.

I have made a long and stupid story of what you would have packed into one of your brief paragraphs—those paragraphs which are like sunlight and like flowers.

Wont you write us a brave book which will really interpret our sister women to themselves. When “Sir George Tressady” was appearing serially a few of us hoped Sir George was going to be a husband indeed to his little wife. How near they were to it that night in the carriage. She was proud of his handsome well set up figure, of his abilities, his character. He (Prig to the last) could only see that her gown was too low!

If I can do anything for you pray command me. I know publishers, translators &c &c.

I shall go to Montreuse in December at latest, but the address at the beginning will always find me.

With every best wish,

Janet Scammon Young[11]

If the above letters were indeed written by Chopin’s friends, the writers attempt to create objective personas. Thomson remarks that “Kate Chopin” cannot be the author’s real name and that he assumes The Awakening’s author is a woman, which suggests that he does not know Chopin personally. If these letters were written by someone other than Thomson and Young, details are included to create a sense of lived reality. Thomson’s postscript explains where he will be in the near future and mentions names of women who, one could guess, might be his wife and daughter. Young also takes care to tell Chopin how she might be reached and narrates a story about her friends, giving them names and occupations (Phil and the Captain).

The writers’ stated ranks, whether fictional or factual, give credence to these two letters’ positive reviews, but the two letters need to be read in tandem to fully grasp this. Young does not use her title of “Lady”—we only surmise that she is part of the aristocracy because of Thomson’s letter in which he continually uses her title. While Thomson tells Young to trust him because he is “an old doctor,” his signature does not include his title. Instead, Young repeatedly refers to Thomson as “Dr. T” to support the points that she is making. Young also compares Thomson to Matthew Arnold, a well-respected cultural critic of the day, to bolster Thomson’s review as not only medically sound but also artistically.

Further, note how both letters connect Chopin with women who were publishing concurrently. Sir George Tressady (1895–1896), that Young mentions, is a serial novel written by Mary Augusta Ward. The Open Question: A Tale of Two Temperaments (1896), which Thomson finds lacking compared to The Awakening, was written by C. E. Raimond, the pen name of Elizabeth Robins. By comparing these three authors, the letters establish Chopin as a highbrow literary figure since both Robins and Ward had impressive ties to literary circles. Ward’s relatives include Aldous Huxley and Arnold (referenced by Young) while Robins was friends with Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and Henry James. These social connections helped women access publishing options during this time period. Further, Robins and Ward were staunch and vocal suffragettes, so Chopin’s novella is put into conversation with their works that also advocate for women’s rights.

Finally, Young’s letter extends what is established in the Thomson letter. Thomson affirms that The Awakening is not immoral; rather, it reflects the authenticity of women’s lived experiences in Edna’s social class and setting. Young’s letter goes beyond affirming the verisimilitude of Edna’s conflict by encouraging Chopin to continue writing and taking even greater literary risks. While we may never confirm who wrote these two letters, their purpose lies in supporting Chopin’s past and future work. Amidst the negative press that her novella received, the letters were a source of comfort and support for Chopin who “showed them to friends with pride and pleasure.”[12]

The Awakening

Link to text: The Awakening

This Pressbooks version of The Awakening comes from the Project Gutenberg edition of the work found at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/160/160-h/160-h.htm. It was uploaded to Pressbooks by the English 203 OER Committee at Texas A&M University in 2023. The citation for the Project Gutenberg edition is as follows:

Chopin, Kate. “The Awakening.” In The Awakening and Selected Short Stories. 1899; Project Gutenberg, August 1994. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/160/160-h/160-h.htm

The following study questions and activities divide the novella into units based on setting and pivotal moments. In thinking about these chapter sets and the questions arising from them, you will begin to dive deeply into the novella, identifying important patterns and themes. This will prepare you to engage in lively class discussions and may, in turn, lead you to potential essay topics.

Chapters I–VI: Grand Isle

This first set of chapters introduces the reader to the main character, Edna Pontellier, who is staying with her husband and two children at a seaside resort on Grand Isle, off the coast of Louisiana. Other important characters introduced in this section are Adèle Ratignolle and Robert LeBrun.

The Awakening Chapters I–VI Questions and Activities for Further Analysis

  1. What possible symbols do you notice in these first 6 chapters?
  2. List and briefly describe each of the characters mentioned in this section. After you’ve finished all of the descriptions, choose one or two words that you think best represent each character.
  3. Write a short paragraph describing the relationship between Edna and Léonce Pontellier. Support your observations with at least two specific quotations from the text.
  4. Using a library database like MLA International Bibliography or JSTOR, research any of the following key words or phrases and write a paragraph or two on your findings. How does this research aid your reading of The Awakening?:
    1. Napoleonic Code
    2. The Angel in the House (author: Coventry Patmore)
    3. Creole AND (femininity OR masculinity)
    4. Creoles AND sex roles
  5. Chapter VI is an especially significant part of this novella. Why do you think this might be the case?

Chapters VII–XVI: Grand Isle

This unit continues on Grand Isle and contains significant events in the process of Edna’s “awakening,” one of which is Robert and Edna’s day trip to the Chênière Caminada.

The Awakening Chapters VII–XVI Questions and Activities for Further Analysis

  1. Does this section contain any new characters, either newly introduced or described in greater detail, than in the first six chapters of the book? Describe them and choose one or two words that best represent each.
  2. Identify symbols in this section. What symbols may be repeated from chapters I–VI? How are these developed further? What new symbols do you notice in this section?
  3. Compare and contrast Edna and Adèle. Use at least one quotation from the text to illustrate your examination of the two characters.
  4. What happens to Edna on her day trip to the Chênière Caminada with Robert? There are many ways to answer this question. Choose one major piece of the trip and examine it closely, listing and beginning to analyze specific details including setting (time and place), symbols, and possible conflict(s). Be sure to include at least one quotation from the text in order to support your discussion.
  5. Where does Robert go when he leaves Grand Isle, and what do you suppose motivates him to do this?

Chapters XVII–XXIV: New Orleans

This section shifts to New Orleans and the Pontelliers’ upper-class home and daily routines there. These chapters introduce several new characters, including Edna’s father, Dr. Mandelet, Alcee Arobin, and, briefly, Mrs. Highcamp.

The Awakening Chapters XVII–XXIV Questions and Activities for Further Analysis

  1. Consider the Pontellier home and how both Léonce and Edna behave there. What expectations are there in their home, how do those expectations become a source of tension, and what happens when they do? Use at least two specific quotations to support your observations. If you would like to dive deeper, visit your library’s databases and, using the MLA International Bibliography and/or JSTOR, conduct a search with keywords such as The Awakening or nineteenth-century New Orleans, gender, women, social roles, sex roles, and/or patriarchy among numerous other possibilities.
  2. Look closely at the passages mentioning and/or involving Dr. Mandelet. How would you characterize him? What purpose do you think he might serve in the story (given also that he has only just been introduced to the reader in this particular section of the novella)? Again, include at least two specific quotations in your discussion of this topic.
  3. What might be important to note about Edna’s father’s visit to her? How would you describe her father? How would you describe Edna’s behavior during the visit?
  4. Discuss Arobin and Mrs. Highcamp. What do you think of them and what passages, both in this section and earlier in the novel, inform your perception of them?
  5. What has happened between chapters XXVII and XXVIII? Chapter XXVIII is the shortest chapter in the novella. What purpose might be served by its brevity? Recall also another very short chapter (chapter VI) towards the beginning of the novella. Examine these two chapters together, comparing and contrasting them. What ideas do you find particularly striking about Edna and her life after you’ve set these two brief chapters side by side?
  6. This section of the novel contains much discussion of art and artists. Find and quote one passage in order to examine thoroughly what qualifies as art and who qualifies as an artist. Also consider the purpose art and discussions of art serve in this section.

Chapters XXV–XXXVI: New Orleans

These chapters continue to chronicle Edna’s changing life in New Orleans. Significant moments in these chapters involve not only Edna, of course, but also Mademoiselle Reisz, Adèle Ratignolle, Robert LeBrun, and Dr. Mandelet.

The Awakening Chapters XXIX–XXXVI Questions and Activities for Further Analysis

  1. In this group of chapters, the reader is introduced to a new setting, a house still located in New Orleans and, in fact, just around the corner from the Pontelliers’ main house. Discuss this house in detail as well as Edna’s decision to move here. With what symbolism does Chopin imbue this new setting and why?
  2. Describe at least three details (supported with specific quotations) of Edna’s dinner party. Why are these details of particular interest to you and of particular importance to the narrative?
  3. How does Léonce respond to Edna’s decision to move to the other house? Citing at least two specific quotations, discuss what he does, in detail.
  4. Where have Edna’s children been during the past chapters and in this section? Why are they there?
  5. How would you describe Edna as she appears in these chapters? Draw not only on what Chopin writes about her directly, but also upon what the author has other characters observe about her. Examine at least two passages from different chapters in this grouping in order to support your thoughts.

Chapters XXXII–XXXIX: New Orleans and Grand Isle

The final chapters of the novella follow Edna back to Grand Isle.

The Awakening Chapters XXXII–XXXIX Questions and Activities for Further Analysis

    1. These three chapters may be understood to constitute the falling action of the novella’s plot. Why might this be an accurate understanding? If you disagree that these do not qualify as falling action but may be perceived as rising action and climax, why so? As always, be sure to use quotations to support your points, whatever position you take.
    2. Carefully consider one of these final three chapters individually. For whichever chapter you choose, do the following:
      • summarize what happens
      • identify and discuss significant characters, symbols, and thoughts (either in dialogue or internal monologue),
      • make a list of places in the chapter that may evoke or connect back to earlier events or characters. Identify specific quotations in the current chapter as well as the earlier chapter(s) that forge a connection between these chapters. What is significant to note about these connections?
    3. Discuss the ending. What happens and why? This may seem like a simple question, but readers often differ dramatically in their interpretation of the final chapter of The Awakening.
    4. Using a database like MLA International Bibliography or JSTOR, do some initial research on one of the topics below. Try searching for each topic in different ways; for instance, you could search for Chopin and biography to find information about her life. Prepare a short PowerPoint presentation on your chosen topic and how it relates to The Awakening (be prepared to share your presentation with the class):
      • Künstlerroman, or novel(la) of an artist’s development
      • Sigmund Freud’s concept of the Oceanic
      • 19th-century pregnancy and childbirth
      • 19th-century maternity and women’s roles
      • 19th-century women writers and/or artists
      • 19th-century New Orleans class system
      • Kate Chopin’s life
      • Additional critical reception at the time of The Awakening’s publication
      • Current scholarly trends in writing about The Awakening
  2. Take a look at different film versions of The Awakening; compare and contrast one or two of these with the novella. What is similar, what is different, and what effect might these changes have on one’s understanding of Edna and her choices?
  3. Conduct data analysis using two or three words that you’ve noticed are repeated throughout the novella. For example, how many times does the word “awakening” occur and at what specific points in Edna’s story? Is the word always used the same way, or does it differ depending on the context in which it appears? What other words are often repeated and appear to carry great significance in the narrative? As mentioned above, you might consider using a tool like Voyant in your exploration.
  4. Create a diorama depicting one significant scene from The Awakening. Be sure to think not only about what to include in your model but also why you are including it. Develop the scene and its significance as fully and creatively as possible while still communicating the scene and your interpretation of it as clearly as possible.
    • You may also choose to make a virtual diorama using shape, color, and line tools, inserting pictures, patterns, etc., using Google Drawings or other design software. As in the preceding diorama instructions, emphasis should be placed not only on what you choose to use but why you choose to use it.

Attribution:

Clough, Kimberly, and Claire Carly-Miles. “Novella: Spotlight on Kate Chopin and The Awakening.” In Surface and Subtext: Literature, Research, Writing. 3rd ed. Edited by Claire Carly-Miles, Sarah LeMire, Kathy Christie Anders, Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt, R. Paul Cooper, and Matt McKinney. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2023. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

 

  1. “At Fault, Kate Chopin, Characters, Setting, Questions.” KateChopin.org, 8 June 2021, www.katechopin.org/at-fault/#composition. ↵
  2. Corse, Sarah M., and Saundra Davis Westervelt. “Gender and Literary Valorization: The Awakening of a Canonical Novel.” Sociological Perspectives Vol. 45, No. 2 (Summer 2002). pp.139–161. ↵
  3. “Book Ways and Worldly Ways.” Delaware Gazette and State Journal, 13 July 1899, 8. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88053046/1899-07-13/ed-1/seq-8/#date1=1777&index=9&rows=20&words=Awakening+Chopin&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=%22chopin%22+awakening&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 ↵
  4. “Novel Leaves a Bad Taste.” Chicago Daily Tribune, 16 April 1899, 51. https://www.proquest.com/docview/172875399/pageviewPDF/32967396F21478DPQ/1?accountid=7082 ↵
  5. “Books Reviewed.” San Francisco Call, 2 July 1899, 30. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1899-07-02/ed-1/seq-30/#date1=1777&index=5&rows=20&words=Awakening+Chopin+Kate&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=%22kate+chopin%22+awakening&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 ↵
  6. Wise, Henry A. “Literature: Book Reviews.” Congregationalist, 24 August 1899, 256. https://www.proquest.com/docview/124199277/pageviewPDF/32967396F21478DPQ/2?accountid=7082 ↵
  7. Chopin, Kate. “Aims and Autographs of Authors.” Book News, July 1899, 612. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924091816516&view=1up&seq=760. ↵
  8. Seyersted, Per. "Kate Chopin's Wound: Two New Letters." American Literary Realism, 1870–1910. 20, no. 1 (1987): 73. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27746264; Toth, Emily. Unveiling Kate Chopin. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999), 226. ↵
  9. Batten, Wayne. "Illusion and Archetype: The Curious Story of Edna Pontellier." The Southern Literary Journal 18, no. 1 (1985): 75. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20077784. ↵
  10. Letter signed Dunrobin Thomson, Langham Hotel, London, to Lady Janet, 5 October 1899, Kate O'Flaherty Chopin Papers, Box 1, Folder 2, Correspondence, 1899, Missouri Historical Society Archives, http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/173034. Transcribed by Kimberly Clough. July 2021. ↵
  11. Letter signed Janet Scammon Young, 8 Newman Street, Oxford St. W., London, to Kate Chopin, 1899, Kate O'Flaherty Chopin Papers, Box 1, Folder 2, Correspondence, 1899, Missouri Historical Society Archives, https://mohistory.org/collections/item/D03581. Transcribed by Kimberly Clough. July 2021. ↵
  12. Toth, Emily. Unveiling Kate Chopin. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999), 226. ↵
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4.5--Spotlight on Kate Chopin and The Awakening Copyright © 2024 by Kimberly Clough and Claire Carly-Miles is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.