The Awakening: Before Reading
Welcome to this unit of study on Kate Chopin's short 1889 novel, The Awakening. Set in New Orleans and the Louisiana Gulf coast, the novel's protagonist, Edna Pontellier, is a young woman who struggles to adapt to the conventions and expectations of a society she has married into. In particular, Edna cannot reconcile the conservatism of married life, of domesticity, and motherhood, which stifle her own romantic,...