The Awakening
By Kate Chopin
Rating: 4/5
Genres : Classics, Sexuality, Novel
Edna is a married woman to a loving and devoted husband with children that fill her life. She is expected to take care of the basic responsibilities of a wife and mother by her husband but she feels a void within herself with her well set family life. She yearns for an all encompassing romance that stirs her soul and wants to follow the guidance of her own self rather than listen to those around her - become a trailblazer and a rebel so to speak. As the change slowly starts seeping into her thoughts and actions, her husband becomes disturbed and rightly concerned. He tries to force her into the old ways but she only breaks free.
She has multiple suitors to keep company in the absence of her always working husband. One of them is Robert whom she falls deeply for but is elusive for her to capture. The other is a man with a notorious reputation of beguiling ladies and she has no desire for him. Eventually as Robert leaves her, she awakens to the knowledge that : What she has, she is not content with and what she wants, she can never get. Driven to despair and despondency, she takes her own life. :(
I feel this strikes a chord even though its only a small novella. A woman wanting to lead her life on her own terms. And the society gossiping, making judgements. Men making advances who want to take advantage. Her wanting things she can't get. Perhaps the true romance that always eluded her is symbolic of the independence she craved - which also eluded her in the end. She can't go living with her desires never fulfilled, so better end that existence. Its sad that she couldn't find a silver lining to her existence where she could balance a need for total independence with some amount of compromise. :/
And although this book is highly controversial for the open sexual nature of the protagonists desires, I felt its not anything too explicit but perhaps it was too much for the late 19th century during which it was published.
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