The Awakening by Kate Chopin | Brief Plot Summary

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Course Hero Literature Instructor Russell Jaffe explains the plot summary of Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening.

Set in 1890s Louisiana, The Awakening charts the journey of the stifled Edna Pontellier as she discovers herself and attempts to come to terms with her situation.

Bored and ill-at-ease with her responsibilities as a Southern wife, she seeks other pursuits, as her husband is frequently away. Edna finds freedom in sexual passion and artistic expression, but she also finds that refusing to conform to accepted women’s roles has a downside.

Having developed feelings for the son of her hostess while on holiday, she seeks to distance herself from her domestic life. Edna pursues a sexual dalliance with a local lothario when she returns home and eventually resolves to set up her own household.

However, her feelings for her earlier flame are revived by his visit. They are then later dashed when he fails to keep a rendezvous. She commits suicide by swimming out into the ocean.

American writer Kate Chopin’s The Awakening was first published in 1899. As a wealthy woman and mother, but also a writer, she understood the difficulty of reconciling the inner life with the outer image, a tension seen throughout her work. Chopin's novel was a daring early experiment in feminist literature. Its unconventional female protagonist testifies to the perennial discontents of women in a society where their value is attached to their relationships with men.

The dramatic novel The Awakening contains many important themes, including women in society, as Edna rebels against the specific and very limited roles women are expected to play in society; individuality, as becoming a fully realized individual means resisting society’s norms but also results in solitude that can be crushing; and awakening, as Edna awakens to her sense of self, her sexual nature, and her ability to express herself. Important symbols include the moon, birds, the ocean, and waking.

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