The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Chapters I-XV
1. What evidence is there in the first two chapters that the Pontelliers have a satisfactory marriage?
Provide at least three pieces of evidence that, on the other hand, Mr. Pontellier treats Edna like an object or possession.
2. What is Mme. Ratignolle that Edna is not (p. 8)?
3. In what way is Edna an outsider at Grand Isle?
4.What is Edna's reaction to the frank Creole talk about childbirth and such?
5. What has Robert been doing each summer since the age of 15?
How is his relationship with Mrs. Pontellier different?
6. What is Mrs. Pontellier's hobby?
7. What is Edna beginning to realize in Ch. VI?
8. How old are the following people:
Edna Pontellier?
Robert LeBrun?
Léonce Pontelier?
9. What has Edna possessed from “a very early period”? (p. 13)
10. What is Edna’s background? (pp. 15-17)
What do all the men she was attracted to before marriage seem to have had in common, more or less?
11. Why did she marry Pontellier?
12. How does Chopin describe Edna’s relationship with her children?
13. At the start of Ch. VIII, what favor does Mme. Ratignolle ask of Robert LeBrun? Why?
14. In Ch IX, both Mme. Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz play the piano. How does Chopin’s portrayal of one differ from the other? Which is the true artist? Which keeps up her playing as a part of the “domestic sphere” of mother/wifehood?
15. In Ch X, everyone goes for a late-night swim in the sea. What does Edna discover in this scene, and how does it make her feel?
16. Judging by his actions in this chapter, is Robert doing what Mme. Ratignolle asked of him? Explain.
17. What does Edna feel for the first time at the end of Ch. X?
How is this evening a turning point for Edna?
18. Describe the conflict in Ch. XI.
19. In Chs. XII and XIII, Edna and Robert go to the nearby island of Chênière Caminada. How does Edna feel as they sail across the bay on p. 34?
20. How does life on the Chênière differ from life on Grand Isle?
21. What does Edna realize on p. 40?
What does she not yet suspect?
22. What does Robert announce that evening? How does Edna react?
Chapters XVI-XXIII
1. In the conversation between Mme. Ratignolle and Edna on pp. 47-48, Edna proclaims, “I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself.” Mme. Ratignolle cannot make sense of this. What does Edna mean by it?
2. Who is Victor LeBrun?
3. When the vacation on Grand Isle is over, where does Edna go?
4, What is she expected to do on Tuesdays?
Does this seem a distasteful task to you? Why or why not?
5. A few weeks after their return to New Orleans, what does Edna start to do?
What is Léonce’s reaction?
What does he seem most concerned about? (p. 51)
Do you, the reader, think he is being unreasonable?
6. What are his next actions during the dinner?
7. What do we learn about Edna and the keeping of the house? Does her behavior/attitude seem acceptable to you? (p. 52)
8. What does Edna do towards the end of Ch. XVII, and what do her actions show us?
9. What is happening to the Pontellier marriage in Chs. XVIII-XIX?
10. How has Edna’s view towards her artistic ability changed since her “dabbling” at Grand Isle?
11. Which couple does Chopin hold in contrast to the Pontelliers? Does Edna envy this couple? Explain? (p. 56)
What similarity does this situation bear to one in “Paul’s Case”?
12. How are Edna’s moods described on p. 58?
13. What does Victor LeBrun tell Edna about on p. 60?
Why might Chopin have chosen to include this reference in the novel?
14. Why does Edna seek out Mlle. Reisz? Why does she feel a sort of kinship with this woman?
15. Quote what Mlle. Reisz tells Edna about being an artist (bottom of p. 63), and explain the meaning of her words.
16. After much pleading on Edna’s part, what does Mlle. Reisz let Edna read?
17. Who is Dr. Mandalet, and why does Mr. Pontellier contact him?
How does Pontellier describe Edna’s “condition” at the bottom of p. 65?
What does Mandalet ask on the next page?
18. Where do we now learn Edna is refusing to go? What is her reason?
19. How does Mandalet describe “woman” on p. 66?
20. What does Mandalet suggest about Edna’s accompanying Pontellier on his upcoming trip to NY?
What does this show about Mandalet, after all?
21. In Ch. XXIII, Dr. Mandelet compares Edna to “some beautiful, sleek animal waking up in the sun.” Discuss the figurative language. What type of “awakening” is referred to here and in the title?
22. After having dinner with the Pontelliers and Edna’s father, why is Mandalet sorry he ever accepted the invitation?
Is Mandalet in some way right about Edna (look also at his unspoken thought at the end of the previous chapter)?
Chapters XXIV – XXXIX
1. Although Edna’s father is some ways an amiable man and good companion, what do we learn about his relationship with his late wife, Edna’s mother?
Might this have been a subconscious influence on Edna’s recent decisions and feelings?
2. Why is Edna alone by the middle of Ch. XXIV? Where is everyone else?
What are the first things she does upon at last being alone?
What is she reading at the end of the chapter, and why is this very significant?
3. Chapters XXV– XXVI, Alcé Arobin and Edna begin to develop a relationship. Whose reaction to this is Edna worried about?
On p. 78, What does Chopin say Arobin is “appealing to” in Edna?
What do you predict for this new relationship?
4. Where will Edna be moving to? What are her true reasons for wanting to do this?
How will she support herself? (p. 79)
What do we learn she’s resolved on p. 80?
5. According to Mlle. Reisz, why does Robert not write to Edna?
6. What does Mlle. Reisz question Edna closely about?
What does Edna essentially reply?
7. In Ch. XXVII, Edna tells Arobin something that Mlle. Reisz said to her. What was the statement, and what is its significance to Edna’s situation as a woman and as an artist?
What does Arobin say about Mlle. Reisz?
8. What happens at the end of Ch. XXVII?
How does Edna feel about it in Ch. XXVIII?
9. Although Edna will not take any possessions paid for by her husband, what is she going to send him the bills for?
Why do you think this is?
10. Describe at least eight sensual details given in description of the party in Ch. XXX.
How do these add to the overall theme of “awakenings” in the novel?
11. How does Victor unwittingly upset Edna at the end of the party?
12. What happens once Arobin and Edna go to the “pigeon-house”?
13. What is Pontellier’s reaction to Edna’s leaving their home?
What does he do, and why?
Does it make any difference to Edna?
14. Whom does Edna visit in Ch. XXXII?
How does the visit go?
15. How does Edna come into contact with Robert again in Ch. XXXIII?
How is this vastly different to what she’d expected, as well as a great disappointment?
16. When they get to the pigeon-house, how do Edna’s actions with Celestine contrast with her earlier behaviors? (botton of p. 99)
During Robert’s visit, what do he and Edna question each other about?
Do they have any real right to do this?
What do you predict for the relationship between Robert and Edna?
17. Why does it seem to Edna that Robert “seemed nearer to her off there in Mexico” (p. 103)? How is this in character for her, considering what we know about her romantic attachments before marriage?
18. How does Edna feel the next morning? Of what does she, perhaps, convince herself?
Do you think she is right?
19. How does Chopin use a clothing image here to represent Edna’s feeling of freedom?
20. What three letters does Edna receive that morning?
21. On p. 103 Chopin says “all sense of reality” has “gone out of” Edna’s life. What can we take this statement to mean, considering that what Edna perceives with her senses seems real enough? Does “reality,” then, mean only social convention and the consequences of defying it?
22. What elements at the end of Ch. XXXV would have been highly controversial at the time the book was published?
23. When Robert finally tells Edna that he loves her and would like to marry her if Léonce would set her free, what does she say that shocks him to the point of making him go pale?
Why does their conversation not continue?
What does Edna tell Robert at the end of Ch. XXXVI, and what does she ask him to do?
24. Analyze the meaning behind Adèle’s, “Think of the children, Edna. Oh think of the children! Remember them!” Consider the following: Is she referring to the precious end-result of the trials of child-bearing? Is she warning Edna not to let herself become a disgrace to her children? Could she be referring to the likelihood that Léonce would never permit her to see her children again if Edna left him for another man?
Are her words beneficial or ultimately destructive to Edna (read the end of the novel before responding definitively)?
25. Does Dr. Mandelet appear to understand what Edna is feeling?
Is her refusal to talk to him a mistake? Explain.
26. Robert’s note reads, “I love you. Goodbye— because I love you.” What does this tell us about Robert’s suitability as a mate for Edna?
27. Consider Chopin’s diction in “The children appeared before her like antagonists who had overcome her; who had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul’s slavery for the rest of her days. But she knew a way to elude them.” In what way would they enslave her?
In what way does Edna “elude” them now?
28. What is the significance of the broken-winged bird circling down to the water? How does this symbol relate to a previous warning by Mademoiselle Reisz?
Is Edna no better off than the bird? Explain
29. Assess Edna’s earlier statement to Dr. Mandelet that “‘perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one's life.’” What things was Edna awakened to during the course of the novel?
Is it good that she awakened, or would it have been better for her to have remained “a dupe”?
Was Chopin’s message that an awakened woman could seldom exist for long in life? Or was she conveying some other meaning? What, if any, were Edna’s other options?
Compare and contrast Edna to Hester Prynne and Maggie Johnson, as well as to Paul in “Paul’s Case.”