Kate Chopin’s

• Born Catherine O’Flaherty

• Creole/Irish Background

• Widowed at 32: husband

Oscar dies and leaves Kate

with $230,000 in debt

• Wrote to support family:

became successful author of

short fiction…

Historical background

…until The Awakening is published in 1899

Critical response- Some positive:

• “Analytical, and fine-spun,” - The Book Buyer

• “The work of an artist who can suggest more than one side of her subject with a single line.” - St. Louis Republic

But most critical response:

• “not…wholesome,” - The Dial

• “should be labeled ‘poison’,” - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

• “It was not necessary for a writer of so great refinement and poetic grace to enter the over-worked field of sex-fiction,” - Chicago Times-Herald

But most critical response:

• Women’s role in society• Women’s role in the household• Consequences of Individualism• Implications of Self-Expression

Awakening!• Types of Awakening:• Physical• Emotional• Intellectual

• Aphrodite (Greek) or Venus (Latin):

Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty. She was said to have been born of water. It is believed that she sprang from a sea-birth near the island of Cytherea. The two components of Aphrodite are passion and water. 

• Echo and Narcissus

Echo cursed to only reply +

Narcissus totally full of himself =

Tragedy

• Gulf Spirit

Sea Spirit from Celtic and Creole myths

Takes humans back to the water

• Icarus

Fashioned wings of feathers and wax

Flew too close to the sun

Orpheus and Eurydice

Love unfulfilled

Pain of emotional entanglement

Undying love

• Fairy Tales:

Classic Images:• Women are vestal and innocent

• Put to Sleep or Isolated to preserve innocence

• Desired for innocence

• Important Symbols

• Birds• Water• Clothing• Houses• Music/Art and Expression