Key Information

The Awakening by Kate Chopin was written in what year?

1899

What genre?

• Proto-feminist novel

• Realist fiction

• Psychological novel

• New Woman fiction

What is it about?

Edna Pontellier gradually rejects

• Marriage

• Motherhood

• Domesticity

• Social expectations

What does Edna Pontellier seek

• Autonomy

• Desire

• Selfhood

Big ideas

• Female identity

• Marriage as confinement

• Sexual autonomy

• Individual freedom

• Patriarchal society

• Motherhood

What are the differences in publications of when Jane Eyre and Mrs Dalloway was published

• Published 48 years after Jane Eyre and 26 years before Mrs Dalloway

• It acts as a bridge between

Brontë’s Victorian feminism

↓

Chopin’s New Woman feminism

↓

Woolf’s Modernist feminism

Master AO5 sentence

• Chopin develops Brontë’s challenge to Victorian femininity by presenting a heroine who seeks complete autonomy

• Anticipating Woolf’s later exploration of female consciousness

Context

New Woman Movement

Women increasingly demanded:

• Education

• Employment

• Independence

• Voting rights

Victorian Expectations

Women expected to be:

• Wives

• Mothers

• Domestic caretakers

Controversial Reception

The novel was heavily criticised because:

• Edna abandons traditional femininity

• Many readers saw her as immoral

Comparison

Jane Eyre

Challenges patriarchy but remains within marriage

Mrs Dalloway

Questions female fulfilment inside marriage

The Awakening

Questions whether marriage itself is compatible with female freedom

Edna Pontellier - Character Overview

Represents:

• Female self-discovery

• Individualism

• Desire

• Rebellion

• Autonomy

Direction comparisons

Jane Eyre

• Both reject dependence

Clarissa Dalloway

• Both question lives shaped by marriage

DIFFERENCE

• Jane ultimately reconciles love and autonomy

• Edna cannot