reviewed by John Murphy

Pagan Goddess…or Vague and Godless?

I first encountered Kate Chopin’s New Orleans-set novella, The Awakening, in a course on twentieth-century literature. I recall a sense of gratitude to the author for her book’s merciful brevity. The Awakening was on the curriculum because of the proto-feminist implications of the storyline. Quick summary (warning: spoilers ahead!): a young, well-to-do wife experiences a spiritual “awakening” after falling in love with another man and determining that her life as a devoted wife and mother is a pretense. She slowly sloughs off the duties and obligations of matrimony and motherhood, has an affair with a disreputable womanizer, and ultimately commits suicide when her true love refuses her “because I love you.”

First published in 1899, Chopin’s book met with a firestorm of criticism over the perceived immorality of its heroine, Edna Pontellier, and the seediness of the storyline. In my Lit class, The Awakening was heralded as a courageous work by a misunderstood, ahead-of-her-time woman artist. Neither view seems to consider whether the book is good or not.

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