Essay - The Significance of Chopin's Title Selection in 'The Awakening' Kate...

The Significance of Chopin's Title Selection in "The Awakening"

Kate ***** The Awakening is a novel that emphasizes Edna's realization that she ***** a woman held back because of societal norms. Chopin utilizes Edna's setting and characters to wake Edna up ***** certain facts about life. ***** awakens to the reality that ***** is a prize and that ***** world ***** full of options for men and women. She also becomes fully aware ***** she is living in a time where ***** are expected to be content living the life of a wife ********** a mother and not want for anything else. Edna has a painful awakening in that she sees the opportunities that ***** ***** to offer yet ***** ***** unable to reach ***** them.

Early in the story, ***** positions Edna for moments of precise realization and clarity. The most significant situation ***** forces Edna to reflect upon her immediate ***** is her marriage. We know that ***** and family do not fulfill her. Her husband seems to ***** aware ***** Edna's d*****enchantment and that is expressed ***** h***** disapproval of ***** *****ly duties. For example, he reprimands her for "her habitual neglect of the children" (Chopin 7) and asks, "If it was not a mother's place ***** look after children, whose on earth was it?" (*****).

What is significant to note about Mr. Pontellier's behavior is the fact that ***** does not try to ***** out to his wife during this difficult time. We see ***** Edna retreats ***** the porch where she can cry. We are told, "Such experiences as the ********** were not uncommon in her married life" (8). In addition, Edna undergoes an "indescribable oppression" that "filled her whole being with anguish" (8). Additionally, we read:

t*****e were days when she w***** very happy *****ithout ********** why. She was happy to be alive and breathing, when her whole *****ing seemed to be one with the sunlight, the color, the odors, the luxuriant warmth ***** some perfect Southern day... There were days when she was un*****, she did not know why,--***** it did not seem worth while to ***** glad or sorry, to be alive or dead; when life appeared ***** her like a grotesque p*****emonium and humanity ***** worms struggling blindly toward inevitable annihilation. (76)

***** these opening scenes, we know that Edna is open to change.

Chopin also uses the setting of Edna's surroundings ***** bring her to a pl*****ce of enlightenment. Perhaps unaware, Edna *****lcomes an awakening and one way she finds it ***** being outside her home. We know she loves being around ***** near the sea. We read that when she is by the ***** she can "realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations ***** an individual to the ***** *****in and about her" (Chopin 17). We even ***** that the sea seduces ***** in such a way ***** it inv*****es her "soul ***** wonder for a spell in abysses ***** solitude"