Journal Entry "The Awakening"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

March 3, 2011

Journal #22, Kate Chopin

"When she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore.  He was naked.  His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him.  Another piece called to her mind a dainty young woman clad in an Empire gown, taking mincing dancing steps as she came down a long avenue between tall hedges.  Again, another reminded her of children at play, and still another of nothing on earth but a demure lady stroking a cat.  ...pictures of solitude, of hope, of longing, or of despair"(554).

"Chopin now found herself in a state of depression after the loss of both her husband and her mother. Her obstetrician and family friend, Dr. Frederick Kolbenheyer, felt that writing would be a source of therapeutic healing for Kate during her hard times. He understood that writing could be a focus for her extraordinary energy, as well as a source of income.^[6] She was quite successful and found many of her publications inside literary magazines. Some of her writings, though, such as The Awakening (1899), were far too ahead of their time and therefore not socially embraced. After almost 12 years in the public eye of the literary world and shattered by the lack of acceptance, Chopin appeared as a virtually nonexistent author"("Kate Chopin", Wikipedia).

 

This passage comes as Chopin describes Edna's reactions to the music being played.  Madame Ratignole had played the piano for her and it had evoke images in her mind.  This description of the images comes in as she waits for them to reappear, listening to Mademoiselle Reisz beginning to play.  The images do not appear, instead she feels as if her very soul is swaying in the gale-force breeze being stirred up by the notes.  Chopin's descriptions of the pictures that Edna had imagined tells much about her state of mind, personality, and thoughts over the past days at Grand Isle.

The way that Chopin separates Edna's visions into four parts and then lists four words to describe the emotions of them lends itself to the idea that each descriptive emotion was intended to relate to the respective image in her head.  They may all be interconnected, however, and the four words, solitude, hope, longing, and despair, may relate to all four images.  Yet, if you specify them to each respective image, they take on more specific, descriptive meanings.

The first image, of a man standing naked on the beach relates to solitude.  She is feeling solitary, and excluded in her sexuality and passion, or perhaps because of it.  She cannot stand the life with her husband, watches Robert slip away, and at the same time experiences awakenings of feeling within herself.  She is opening up to her own desires and sexuality, but either destroying or losing all outlets for it.  This leaves her feeling alone; awake in solitude.

The second image, described as hope, is of a young woman musically walking down an avenue with tall hedges on either side.  This seems like a reference to her youth, walking with blinded peripheral vision, hopefully and cheerfully headed to the future. 

The next is of children at play, corresponding to a feeling of longing.  This could mean longing for innocent and blissfully ignorant youth, or to a longing for her own children.  She has drifted away from a strong motherly relationship with them, if that was ever the case.  She cannot relate to them, cannot provide what she feels that they need, and yet feels the responsibility to fill this role.

The last image is of a lone woman stroking a cat, evoking feelings described as despair.  This is the stereotypical image of a 'cat woman'.  This represents either loneliness, as in the unmarried cat woman that has no other relationships, shut off  from the world, or it displays conforming to the social norms, losing identity, becoming 'homely' and easily content.  She feels despair, fearing this as a possible future for herself, as either shut out through her own actions towards that, or of giving in to societal pressures, dumbing herself down, and being a 'good victorian wife and mother'.

Despite her repeated claims to the reader and herself that she neither thinks of past nor present, these thoughts along with others show that she is very much aware and conscious of them pulling her back and directing her forward.