Romantic Imagery in Kate Chopin's The Awakening

Abstract

LTHOUGH KATE CHOPIN'S The Awakening has in recent years elicited considerable commentary, critics have tended to construe her theme much too narrowly. As George Arms points out in his discussion of the book, it is too often seen in terms of the question of sexual freedom,' and in at least one analysis, it is read as a strongly feminist novel.2 To be suire, some critics, like Per Seyersted, recognize that the book has broader implications than these, but even he stresses unduly the theme of female self-assertion which he sees as underlying all of Chopin's works.3 No one would want to deny, of course, that this theme is indeed present in both The Awakening and many of her short pieces. The awakening of Edna Pontellier must surely be seen in part as her sexual arousal by Robert Lebrun during the summer on Grand Isle, one that resembles in some ways the arousal of Athenaise or the awakening of Caline in their respective stories in Night in Acadie. The latter character, in particular, is specifically awakened from sleep by the sudden stopping of a railroad train from which steps the young artist whom she later seeks in the city.4 But too much emphasis on this aspect of The Awakening will distort both Chopin's meaning and her accomplishment. For Kate Chopin reserves neither the word nor the experience for women alone, nor is it always seen in her works in a sexual context. In A Rude Awakening, a story in Bayou Folk, Sylveste Bordon is shocked into assuming responsibility for his family by