American Literature Guide Q--Chopin

KATE CHOPIN: THE AWAKENING (Guide Questions)

1. Comment on Chopin’s effectiveness in use of local color elements. Do you think the novel goes beyond mere local color?

2. Discuss the relative effectiveness of Chopin’s characterization. Consider (although you are not limited to discussion of) Edna, Mr. Pontellier, Robert, Alcee Arobin, Dr. Mandelet, Mlle. Reisz, Mme. Lebrun, , Mme. Ratignole. Are the characters individualized or stereotyped?

3. To what extent do you find Chopin aware of and sensitive to the role of women in 19th century society? In Creole society? In society in general? Is she accurate, or does she seem to overstate her case? (One critic has suggested she depicts French, rather than American, society.)

4. Consider Edna in relation to her society--especially as a study in conflicts and contrasts. Is she the creature of her society? Can she—or does she—rise above that society? Does she establish her personal freedom—albeit at the cost of her life? Is the suicide a victory for society? (Several other questions will also examine this topic.)

5. How effective do you find Chopin’s use of imagery and symbolism to reinforce her themes? (Consider, for example, the use of sea imagery at the beginning and end of the novel—or, for that matter, throughout the work.)

6. Discuss Edna’s isolation throughout the novel. (Margaret Culley, a critic, describes the novel thus: “The Awakening, an existential novel about solitude, is distinguished from most such fiction by its female protagonist. Because of her sex, Edna Pontellier experiences not only dread in the face of solitude, but also delight. As a woman, she has had so little sense of a self alone that her new-found solitude suggests entirely new arenas and modes of activity. Solitude also brings a confrontation with the ultimate solitude—death. What we feel most keenly about Edna is her remoteness from those about her. . . And her solitude is underscored by the dramatic action of the novel as the significant persons in her life repeatedly leave her alone.”)

7. Critic Larzer Ziff views the novel as a study in identity: “The Awakening was the most important piece of fiction about the sexual life of a woman written to date in America, and the first fully to face the fact that marriage, whether in point of fact it closed the range of a woman’s sexual experiences or not, was but an episode in her continuous growth. It did not attack the institution of the family as the automatic equivalent of feminine self-fulfillment, and . . . raised the question of what woman was to do with the freedom she struggled toward.” Comment.

8. If you are familiar with them, consider The Awakening in relation to other realist/naturalist works of the period, such as Daisy Miller, Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, Sister Carrie, or Looking Backward (only for the treatment of women)/

9. Consider the idea of the wife as politically, socially, and legally dependent of the husband and the prevailing belief that the woman's first duty was not to herself but to her family and her home. Was there an equivalent idea that the man's first duty was to his family and his home?

10. Discuss the author's "editorializing" in Chapters VI and VII.

11. What is revealed in the author's references to Edna's "obedience" to "contradictory impulses" and her "habitual reserve"?

12. To what extent does The Awakening seem dated? To what extent does it seem contemporary?

13. Does the novel support the contention that Chopin revealed a greater interest in universal psychological truths than in the superficialities of local color?

14. With respect to the Mademoiselle Reisz and Adele Ratignolle as competing role models, to which is Edna initially more attracted? Is Edna’s divided loyalty to both Mademoiselle Reisz and to Adele Ratignolle a sign of some genuine division in her character? Does some such irreconcilable division cause Edna's flight from life at the end of the novel?

15. React to the following, as a characterization of Edna, from George Arms, "Kate Chopin's The Awakening in the Perspective of Her Literary Career," Essays on American Literature, ed. Clarence Ghodes (1967) 217-218: “Edna appears not so much as a woman who is aware of the opposition of two ideas [conformity and independence] but rather as one who drifts....” Is the novel about a woman adrift?

16. Discuss Edna's physical passion (Chapter XXVIII), her seduction (Chapter XXXII), and the compensatory attention she lavishes on her children (Chapter XXXII) when she violates conventional codes of married conduct.

17, How convincing is Chopin's portrait of Edna as a woman moved to overwhelming passion by the power of music?

18, In Chapter XXXVII, Edna leaves Robert, despite his pleas, and then she prolongs her absence unnecessarily. Upon her return home, Robert has gone. What could account for Edna's action?

19. How valid is the suggestion that Edna was in love with a romantic dream rather than the real thing? Compare her affair with Arobin. Do Edna's responses suggest that she separated her physical passion from her romantic ideals?

20. The ending of the novel has been described as sentimental, as evasive, as realistic, and as inconclusive. Discuss these contrasting judgments:

a. The conclusion of the novel is a failure because it is evasive.

b. Edna accurately assesses her life. She sees that she does not want her former life of wife and mother, and she knows she cannot have her "awakened" life. Therefore she purposely chooses no life.

9. Consider the idea of the wife as politically, socially, and legally dependent of the husband and the prevailing belief that the woman's first duty was not to herself but to her family and her home. Was there an equivalent idea that the man's first duty was to his family and his home?

10. Discuss the author's "editorializing" in Chapters VI and VII.

11. What is revealed in the author's references to Edna's "obedience" to "contradictory impulses" and her "habitual reserve"?

12. To what extent does The Awakening seem dated? To what extent does it seem contemporary?

13. Does the novel support the contention that Chopin revealed a greater interest in universal psychological truths than in the superficialities of local color?

14. With respect to the Mademoiselle Reisz and Adele Ratignolle as competing role models, to which is Edna initially more attracted? Is Edna’s divided loyalty to both Mademoiselle Reisz and to Adele Ratignolle a sign of some genuine division in her character? Does some such irreconcilable division cause Edna's flight from life at the end of the novel?

15. React to the following, as a characterization of Edna, from George Arms, "Kate Chopin's The Awakening in the Perspective of Her Literary Career," Essays on American Literature, ed. Clarence Ghodes (1967) 217-218: “Edna appears not so much as a woman who is aware of the opposition of two ideas [conformity and independence] but rather as one who drifts....” Is the novel about a woman adrift?

16. Discuss Edna's physical passion (Chapter XXVIII), her seduction (Chapter XXXII), and the compensatory attention she lavishes on her children (Chapter XXXII) when she violates conventional codes of married conduct.

17, How convincing is Chopin's portrait of Edna as a woman moved to overwhelming passion by the power of music?

18, In Chapter XXXVII, Edna leaves Robert, despite his pleas, and then she prolongs her absence unnecessarily. Upon her return home, Robert has gone. What could account for Edna's action?

19. How valid is the suggestion that Edna was in love with a romantic dream rather than the real thing? Compare her affair with Arobin. Do Edna's responses suggest that she separated her physical passion from her romantic ideals?

20. The ending of the novel has been described as sentimental, as evasive, as realistic, and as inconclusive. Discuss these contrasting judgments:
a. The conclusion of the novel is a failure because it is evasive.
b. Edna accurately assesses her life. She sees that she does not want her former life of wife and mother, and she knows she cannot have her "awakened" life. Therefore she purposely chooses no life.