course guidelines path one calendar class discussion path two calendar essay prompts reference pages


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A Delicious, Grotesque, Impossible Dream

"As she swam she seemed to be reaching out for
the unlimited in which to lose herself" (28).

Points for Reflection

K. Chopin's The Awakening (1899), chps. 1-12

  1. do the Pontellier boys take more after their father or mother?
  2. does Chopin want the reader to dismiss the parrot’s occasional critique, or are we to sympathize with the sentiment conveyed by the words “Go away! Go away! For heaven’s sake!”?
  3. what implicit posture towards matrimony does this novella adopt?  Does it provide various models of marriage to balance one another?
  4. how did Edna and Léonce end up marrying?
  5. how and why does Edna’s and Léonce’s marriage dynamic change in the novella’s first third?
  6. what makes Mrs. Pontellier fascinating to watch, according to the narrator (3)?
  7. does Edna’s sensitivity to visual beauty extend to both sexes?
  8. towards what particular artform does Edna gravitate?
  9. does Edna show any signs of enjoying good literature?
  10. why does Mademoiselle Reisz declare Edna “the only one worthy playing for” (26)?
  11. do Madame Adèle Ratignolle and Mrs. Edna Pontellier mirror each other in any important ways, or do they function simply as feminine foils for one another?
  12. why might a feminist author like Chopin introduce both Mrs. Edna Pontellier and Madame Adèle Ratignolle by first describing their physical features instead of their personalities (3)?
  13. does Edna love being a mother?
  14. what qualities make Adèle a feminine ideal?
  15. is Edna self-aware?
  16. Is Edna Pontellier able to describe to others or herself her own thoughts, feelings, and motivations?
  17. is Edna Pontellier able to describe to others or herself her own thoughts, feelings, and motivations?
  18. why might Edna weep the first night after we meet her, when she has not let similar circumstances weigh her down in the past (6)?  Has anything changed, or precipitated this emotional release?
  19. what signs does Chopin provide of Edna’s “awakening,” and to what is she awakening?
  20. how should we characterize Edna’s and Robert’s friendship thus far.  Is Adèle right to be concerned?
  21. what role does the ocean serve in this tale?  What about it so enthralls Edna Pontellier?
  22. does this novel mount a case for or against religion?  Consider not only its direct, obvious comments, but its more oblique engagements as well.
  23. why does the unnamed “lady in black” follow the two lovers regularly, and what does she represent in a symbolic sense?
  24. what is this “candor” which so powerfully draws Edna Pontellier towards itself?
  25. what kind of freedom does Edna instinctively seek?

a painting of a side-profile woman from the chest up facing left. The woman is wearing a plain cream dress and an ornate, large hat. Her hat has a large white feather and green fabric at the brim. There is a large, sheer blue veil from the hat which sweeps across the entire image as if there were wind blowing.
The Blue Veil (1898)
Edmund Tarbell


Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu