The Awakening: Literary Context and Conversation

The Awakening, a novella written by Kate Chopin, was an interesting text to analyze through the lens of a feminist critic. The story definitely highlights a lot of women struggles in the past and present and because of this, there have been a lot of critics of the novella, some even by feminist critics as well. So, that is why I focused on an article called “Kate Chopin's the Awakening as Feminist Criticism” by Emily Toth to understand a more in depth point of view of the novella.

            In this article, Toth’s main idea that she is trying to make is that The Awakening is didactic feminist literature. The dictionary.com definition of didactic is “intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive”. So, what she means by saying that the novella is a didactic feminist literature, is that she thinks that in Chopin’s writing, she is trying to show female struggle in the world that she lives in. In this, she thinks that Chopin is trying to show that women need to have “psychological, physical, social, and sexual emancipation” (Toth, 3). Although this was the main theme of the article, which she supported by context from novella, this is not what I would like to focus on from it.

            I think the most interesting thing the author brings up is the clothing that is brought up in the novella. She mentions several parts in the book that she thinks the author purposely uses as a parallel for Edna and her quest to freedom. She first brings up Edna’s little anecdote of when she was a young girl. While she is running through long grass as a little girl she says: “my sun-bonnet obstructed my view” (Toth, 4). Edna also casts off a lot of clothing throughout the novel, like in the end when she goes naked into the sea, or the first image of her when is not wearing her parasol and being scolded by her husband because of it. The author makes an interesting claim, in that the clothing parallels Edna’s in ability to see life for herself, and when she casts off her clothing, it parallels her becoming an independent free thinker.

            I also used the website, Sparknotes, to look at a different point of view of the novel. The website was split into many parts, so I focused on one specific symbol, the birds of the novel. I really thought one thing was interesting, that the parrot and mockingbird in the beginning represents two women in the novel. The author writes: “Madame Lebrun’s parrot and mockingbird represent Edna and Madame Reisz, respectively. Like the birds, the women’s movements are limited (by society), and they are unable to communicate with the world around them” (SparkNotes). This really stuck out to me, because there was so many mentions of birds and I really felt that they represented Edna’s freedom. They also said: “The novels “winged” women may only use their wings to protect and shield, never to fly” (SparkNotes). I totally agree with this statement. The women are supposed to only be mothers and take care of their families, but never go after their own goals and dreams, and this is what Edna struggles with.

            I thought that both of the ideas that each of my sources brought up were both intriguing and interesting. They both seemed to make sense. Although, the scholarly article by Emily Toth really had a lot of textual evidence and outside sources to support her claims and really went into more depth in her findings. Altogether, I think both of these sources were useful in different ways. Although they did not overlap at all, they both made sense, and could both be true. I also agree with both of them and I thought it was interesting and engaging to read them because it really made the novella more interesting for me and more in depth. Something that I did not think or pay attention to while I was reading the novella myself. I can really see how readings these sources can help while reading a novel.

SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Awakening.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.

Toth, Emily. "Kate Chopin's the Awakening As Feminist Criticism." Southern Studies 2.3-4 (Fall-Winter 1991): 231-241. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 127. Detroit: Gale, 2002. 20th Century Literature Criticism Online. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.