On Kate Chopin's The Awakening : The three factors affecting Edna's awakening and suicide

Abstract

Kate Chopin's The Awakening is one of most problematic works of the 1890s in America where the "Victorian morality" became an especially rigid stronghold against social and intellectual ferment. Meeting with widespread hostile criticism, this novel was out of print until recently. The novel deals with a young wife's awakening to selfhood and erotic passion, and her suicide. There are three factors, each of which contributes strongly to her awakening and suicide : (1) The sea around the Grand Isle, (2) several other major characters in the novel and (3) solitude and isolation. Because of the mixed effects of these factors, this novel has an ambiguity in its theme. Some critics consider her suicide a victory and evaluate her final act as the birth of a prototype of the 20th century woman ; others regard her self-destruction as a defeat of her romanticism and criticize it as a regressive act coming from a sense of inner emptiness. I suspect either comment is defendable. Then I have explored the significance of her suicide through the investigation of the three factors I mentioned above.