The Awakening: Chapter Analysis

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier’s journey to selfhood. Facing obstacles in 1899 society, Edna finds it difficult achieve her goal of independence. Though revelations in the opening chapter, the Pigeon House, and Edna’s suicide, and through characters, such as Adèle Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, Kate Chopin develops imagery of birds and flight to explore the evolving sense of self in Edna Pontellier, who feels caged by a conforming society. Within the first chapter, Edna Pontellier is indirectly compared to birds. Chapter I opens to a caged green and yellow parrot on Madame LeBrun’s front porch, which repeats French, English, and Spanish phrases, along with “a language which nobody understood (1).” The parrot

Edna is indirectly compared to the birds through their shared behavior of imitation and their similar confinement. The parrot and the mockingbird are known to mimic sounds or phrases, similar to the way Edna obeys the people around her (Dyer 36). For example, in chapter III, Edna’s husband, Léonce Pontellier, insists Raoul is sick and Edna should care for him. Edna complies unwillingly and angered by her husband’s insult towards her mothering. Similar to the birds, Edna does what she is told to do. Edna, like the birds and Madame Lebrun, has an owner, her husband, whom she obeys. In addition to imitation, Edna and the birds also share their captivity. While the birds are physically caged on the porch, Edna is metaphorically caged in her marriage. Edna’s wedding rings symbolize the physical shackles of marriage, which make her feel caged like the birds on the porch. In the first chapter, Edna’s unhappiness in the marriage is seen through the disinterested exchanges between her and her husband. During their exchange, Léonce says he is going to the Klein’s Hotel— where there will undoubtedly be

Mademoiselle embodies the opposite of the mother-woman, the “artist-woman (Skaggs 94).” Mademoiselle Reisz is a disagreeable pianist who denies everything about womanhood, from marriage to children. At the Ratignolle’s dinner party, Mademoiselle moves back and forth from room to room to escape a crying child. Later at the diner party, Mademoiselle plays the piano for the guests; however, the guests, excluding Edna, do not genuinely appreciate her music. During the song, Edna creates a painting in her mind of a naked man watching “a bird its flight away from him( 34).” Because her first encounter with Mademoiselle comes before she moves to the Pigeon House, Edna’s imaginary painting foreshadows her departure from her life Léonce’s possession. Edna and Mademoiselle Reisz spark a connection through their loves of the arts. Mademoiselle confesses at the dinner party Edna was the only person worth playing for. Edna was the only genuine lover of art, while the other guests simply cooed compliments in unison with one another. Edna begins to view Mademoiselle as a guide to independence. In their discussions of the arts, Mademoiselle instructs Edna to surrender herself to her art and deny conventional relationships (Chametzky 201). Originally, Mademoiselle encouraged Edna to move into her own space; however, after learning of Edna’s affairs with Arobin and Robert, Mademoiselle