Kate Chopin: The Victorian Man's Nightmare

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, first published in 1899, was a book ahead of its time. Addressing the issues of female independence and sexuality, the book proved extremely controversial when published. Many consider it the first feminist novel. Chopin was widely criticized and even ostracized by society upon the book’s publication.

The female protagonist of the novella, Edna Pontellier, commits a variety of sins against the culture of the time. She is meant to be a woman who serves family and husband with no thought of her own wants and needs. She is meant to be a woman who accepts callers on Tuesday afternoons. She is meant to be a woman who dresses in a “decent” manner. She is meant to remain faithful to her husband. Edna breaks all of these rules of society. She dreams of a life that is her own. She is not suited for the demands of a domestic life. She longs to paint and express herself. She leaves the house on Tuesday afternoon, leaving no word for the woman of society who call on her. She dresses “indecently.” She has affairs with two different men. Her husband and children could not “posses her, body and soul.”

Many critics argue that Edna’s “awakening” is one of emerging from the oppressive role that society has thrust upon her. Having glimpsed her possible escape from this oppression in her love affair with Robert LeBron, she cannot go back to the prison of her life with her husband, crushed by her mundane, wealthy life of tradition and upholding social mores.

Whether one agrees with this interpretation of the novella, it is obvious that Edna’s actions which flout traditional values of the time, lead many readers of the time to view this work as controversial.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you think there would have been any controversy with The Awakening if the protagonist were a man having affairs with women?
2. Which is more controversial — a female protagonist having an affair, or a female protagonist who comes to the realization that maternal life is not self fulfilling?
3. Do we see Edna Pontellier as a relevant heroine for feminism in today's social climate?

—Ryan Steed