Kate Chopin: "The Awakening"


 * Intertextuality - Sleeping Beauty
 * Length of time
 * Not connected to children
 * Wanted a fairy tale role
 * Robert has princely role
 * Narrator - voice of the story
 * Focalizer
 * The narrator challenges Edna by giving other female options:
 * Adele - the model wife and mother
 * The novel runs the length of Adele's pregnancy, ends with the birth of Adele's baby
 * What does the comparison between Adele and Edna's physical appearances do to the novel?
 * Would you want to become the model/ epitome of beauty? She's a valid choice for identity: she's happy.
 * Adele gives birth naturally, Edna uses anesthesia. What does this say about them?
 * Edna values freedom and choice, but she chose to not be aware, even awake
 * Adele = perfect
 * Leonce - nice guy, good intentions, uncomprehending
 * Robert - much more passionate man than Leonce, about the chase,
 * No villains in the story
 * Chopin's commentary on Edna - she's a heroine and she's not
 * Why doesn't Chopin ever give Edna a moment to rise up and express how she actually feels?
 * Edna is weak
 * She's awakening, not awakened. She's not to the point where she can vocalize it.
 * Chopin seems torn over whether Edna is good or bad, criticized or praised.
 * No moral.
 * Very secular.
 * The bird that would sore above the.... Pg.138