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A review by euryale
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
5.0
Spoilers ahead. (Probably! Just little ones.)
I had my moments with this book. There were times when my patience with Edna wore thin despite an understanding of the historical context. I was concerned by her shallow, fluctuating moods and free association with Arobin. However, by the end I wanted nothing but to pluckour heroine her out of this novel and place her in one with a more romantic ending.
I almost called her a "heroine" there, but I think that's part of the problem leading to poor reviews of this book. This is a character-driven narrative: Mrs. Pontellier is not a traditional hero, Mr. Pontellier is not a villain, and no one is going to rush in at the last moment to fix an unhappy situation. This story is about a woman trying to re-claim herself after living most of her life as the property of one man or another. We watch Edna unfurl her wings and discover that, unfortunately, she may not be able to "soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice."
The beautiful thing about that (and Chopin's writing), is that Edna is human. And she's not just human, but she's a woman, and she's a woman before she's a wife or a mother or a fashionable lady about town. That's why she's frustrating and doesn't live up to your expectations and why you can sympathize with her sometimes but not always. She's not a caricature. It means that she can fail and make mistakes and try to fix them but not always get it right.
Whether or not you ultimately sympathize with her actions, she is/was a victim. Even if you think she had it pretty good with a "husband who didn't beat her" and more money than you could shake a stick at, the injustices and microaggressions she suffered were very much present, and they weren't going away anytime soon: divorcing Pontellier and marrying Robert may seem like an easy fix to her problems, but even Edna knows this won't be her reality (divorce at this time in LA would have been more or less impossible). Whatever strength she had left in her wings was probably used up in the realization that the person she was becoming, or just being able to realize, would never be understood.
I won't waste my breath/impressive manual dexterity trying to rebut every narrow-minded review that has already been written. The introduction by Marilynne Robinson is thought-provoking and asks a worthwhile question to keep in mind while reading: is this really the story of Edna awakening to new desires, or a slow rekindling of the fires in her soul that have repeatedly been damped?
This book is beautifully and thoughtfully written. It is a fairly quick but fulfilling read that will stay with you long after you have finished. That being said, I am probably posting this review prematurely, but I think I'd like most of my thoughts regarding Edna's character to remain private. She was a lonely, flawed creature, but not without courage or redemption.
I had my moments with this book. There were times when my patience with Edna wore thin despite an understanding of the historical context. I was concerned by her shallow, fluctuating moods and free association with Arobin. However, by the end I wanted nothing but to pluck
I almost called her a "heroine" there, but I think that's part of the problem leading to poor reviews of this book. This is a character-driven narrative: Mrs. Pontellier is not a traditional hero, Mr. Pontellier is not a villain, and no one is going to rush in at the last moment to fix an unhappy situation. This story is about a woman trying to re-claim herself after living most of her life as the property of one man or another. We watch Edna unfurl her wings and discover that, unfortunately, she may not be able to "soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice."
The beautiful thing about that (and Chopin's writing), is that Edna is human. And she's not just human, but she's a woman, and she's a woman before she's a wife or a mother or a fashionable lady about town. That's why she's frustrating and doesn't live up to your expectations and why you can sympathize with her sometimes but not always. She's not a caricature. It means that she can fail and make mistakes and try to fix them but not always get it right.
Whether or not you ultimately sympathize with her actions, she is/was a victim. Even if you think she had it pretty good with a "husband who didn't beat her" and more money than you could shake a stick at, the injustices and microaggressions she suffered were very much present, and they weren't going away anytime soon: divorcing Pontellier and marrying Robert may seem like an easy fix to her problems, but even Edna knows this won't be her reality (divorce at this time in LA would have been more or less impossible). Whatever strength she had left in her wings was probably used up in the realization that the person she was becoming, or just being able to realize, would never be understood.
I won't waste my breath/impressive manual dexterity trying to rebut every narrow-minded review that has already been written. The introduction by Marilynne Robinson is thought-provoking and asks a worthwhile question to keep in mind while reading: is this really the story of Edna awakening to new desires, or a slow rekindling of the fires in her soul that have repeatedly been damped?
This book is beautifully and thoughtfully written. It is a fairly quick but fulfilling read that will stay with you long after you have finished. That being said, I am probably posting this review prematurely, but I think I'd like most of my thoughts regarding Edna's character to remain private. She was a lonely, flawed creature, but not without courage or redemption.