Awakening One (A): The Awakening Speaks to

¶ … Awakening ONE (a): The Awakening speaks to the fact that women were breaking away from the dependence they had on men (and the power men had over women as a cultural tradition). When Edna learns to swim, for example, she is extremely happy that she has control over something that propels her; Chopin uses Edna's emerging independence (and Edna's repulsion for the "…vague, tangled, chaotic…exceedingly disturbing" truth about her own life) as a metaphor for this breaking away from the role women played (Complete Works, 995).

On page 1,000 Edna enters the water with no clothes and feels like a "new-born creature. Chopin's book broke literary tradition and created quite a stir because of the racy life and changes of Edna that led to her rejection of her wifely duties; the literary world, and the world of readers, were shocked because wives traditionally had obligations, and hence Chopin broke the mold.

That male's traditional mold had been well established by DH Lawrence, James Joyce, and other novelists, and by portraying Edna as a woman who desires emotional closeness and intimacy -- and leaves the bonds of marriage to find those feminine experiences -- Chopin changed literary conventions. TWO (b): Chopin uses Edna's husband as a point of reference vis-a-vis Edna's shocking changes from the dutiful wife she always was before.

Edna's husband can't relate to his wife in any context other than as a possession he has the right to own and control. The cultural norm in the 19th century was for a husband to build his wife a home, to confine one's wife to that home and to expect his wife to always be there.

Chopin also is impacted by her association with Adele Ratignolle, who is involved in a traditional marriage with husband and children but Adele listens to Edna and allows Edna to see the life that Edna really wants to pursue. Adele clearly understands Edna and supports Edna's desire to become an artist. Robert enters Edna's life and helps her have the courage to learn to swim (symbolic of her new-found independence). And Edna is very moved by the music that Mlle.

Reisz plays; Edna responds to the music and to Robert's supportiveness and learns to swim, with is a huge emotional release for Edna. THREE (c): Culture and setting play an important part in the success of a novel. For example, Edna dreams of becoming an artist and she is drawn to Mlle. Reisz because the pianist has achieved independence through her music-related art.

Artists and musicians make up part of the culture of any community or region, and in this novel the characters seek to become pivotal to the local color and culture. The setting of this story, in the Creole culture -- where social and religious values are strong -- community of New Orleans, provides the background for which Chopin can juxtapose Edna's desire for sexual meaning and liberation. Few in this setting really understand Edna, and that tends to bring isolation to Edna.

In other words, by choosing certain settings the novelist can portray the character either in conflict with that setting, or somehow shaped by the setting. FOUR (d): First Edna chooses to be married and have children even though she does not feel love towards her husband. There is little if any intimacy in her marriage so she has an affair with Arobin in search of sexual satisfaction but learns there is no real love or help for her identity in that phase.

She is awakened sexually, but still feels the pain of being incomplete. She breaks away from cultural mores and in the process she understands that she cannot separate what the body does and feels from what the mind and heart are experiencing. Robert sees her as an angelic person and Alcee just wants her sex. She is conflicted in this setting. Certainly many women in the late 19th century.