When Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening appeared in 1899, one reviewer deemed it an unhealthy, "morbid” book. Another maintained that its protagonist Edna Pontellier embraced "the fiend called Passion,” while a third wondered if Chopin were claiming that a married women should be free to "wantonly” severe ties to her husband and live openly as an unmarried woman. But amidst the harrumphing and handwringing one critic struck a note that resonates today. "Edna Pontellier,” wrote the reviewer, "whose husband has vaguely held her dear as a bit of decorative furniture, suddenly becomes aware she is a human being.” How can we interpret Edna’s awakening? Is sexuality central to it or incidental? Why, at the end of the novel, does Chopin present what seems to be a tragic scene with non-tragic language and imagery? Join us as we explore these and other questions about this widely taught novel.
