A great part of the gender wars transpired in the early days of this century. The apex of the movement to realism also occurred in the early part of this century. The Awakening by Kate Chopin blends these two events into a novel about a woman and her personal situation. The Awakening by Kate Chopin is the story of a woman. She is married, has children, and is emotionally unsettled. Her tale is a familiar one, with affairs of the body and soul. Themes present are stereotypes, seduction, and freedom; my feeling about the novel is that these themes are merely served as a way to grind down the reader.

This novel has many themes veining through the work, including female stereotypes, seduction and freedom. The story develops the theme of female stereotypes through role definition. The role definition of the main character can easily be seen through her constant warnings to herself about the differences between her and her husband. One can also find this sort of definition through the various discrepancies the narrator lists.

Her character begins as a typical housewife, with typical duties expected of her. These duties include being ‘’a valuable piece of personal property’’ (Chopin 882). To be a piece of property must be a difficult job. Inanimate objects are difficult to imitate on a constant basis. She also is entirely in charge of the children; when her husband discovers one had a fever, he tells her about it rather than doing something himself (885). He is appalled at her negligence regarding the children (885). These points seem to point blame to her, though truly the blame may lie elsewhere. After all this, she also must admit that he is best husband in the world, ‘’that she knew of none better’’ (887). This situation memorialized the struggle everyday women had to go through. She must be, as she described it, ‘’a mother-woman’’, or ‘’women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels’’ (888). This definition of her role and its boundaries is a bit limiting in nature.

Another theme set forth in the novel is that of seduction. Seduction is manifested in the affairs. Pontellier has a few affairs in the novel. It would be difficult to discuss all of them. The affairs with men are always implicit, suggesting of relations and infatuation. The affair with Mrs. Reisz is explicit. This affair might not have been sexual, but it is certainly of the heart. Reisz allows Pontellier the release that other characters do not permit her. Pontellier depends on Reisz for her being. Without Reisz’s guide, Pontellier might have stayed in her typical life. The final affair she has is with the sea. The narrator finds that ‘’The voice of the sea is seductive...inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abyss of solitude...’’(893). Pontellier falls prey to the sea in her final moments. Pontellier also admits to her dual role ‘’that outward existence which conforms, the inward life, which questions...’’(893). Her outward existence included her implicit affair with other men. Her inward life might have included her affair with Mrs. Reisz and the sea.

Freedom was another theme in the novel. Chopin exhibits false freedom through Pontellier. Emotionally, Pontellier finds herself free; she admitted that she would give up everything but herself for her children. This statement of freedom is emphasized with her abandonment of her previous life: she gives up her visiting days and her house to make herself happy. The narrator states that ‘’she had abandoned herself to Fate, and awaited the consequences with indifference’’ (988). This newfound liberty is short lived though. She calls Robert selfish and herself ‘’unwomanly’’ for ‘’expressing herself’’ (990). She expresses her frustration at the endless cycles of her life toward the end; even in the end, the only way she finds true freedom from this cycle is through the sea. (999).

This total freedom is expressed in the last section: the reader must wonder if she truly frees herself in this manner. The repetition of the seas’ seductive nature on page 999, her casting aside her ‘’unpleasant’’ clothes, and her standing naked all become emancipation to her. She ‘’felt like some new-born creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known’’(1000). She ‘’dares and defies’’ (1000) and wades into the ocean, only to set herself free. This liberation is felt at the ultimate price, and most of us are unwilling to pay such a high fare.

The Awakening was not the feminist reading I had thought it to be. Pontellier’s freedom is hard-fought, and the reader is still led to question whether she actually attains it. Her death as a result of her struggles could be seen in a variety of other novels during this time. Chopin’s treatment of her is average at best. Chopin tends to exemplify stereotypes rather than attempting to eradicate them. The novel is a testament as to my definition of realism: Pontellier falls prey to false bravery but in the end dies because of her own personal vice.

This standard of a realist novel merely served to frustrate me. Pontellier’s freedom should be complete and whole, not the partial freedom that is taken away when one realizes death. The struggle throughout the novel grinds away at the reader; the details are so copious and obvious that the reader all but stumbles upon them. This technique could be considered useful, for Chopin certainly got her point across about female suppression.

Female suppression and realism unite in The Awakening by Kate Chopin. This novel blends these two events into the affairs of a woman. The themes of the novel unwind in a general revelation of realism and feminism, while also displaying a nature that is both frustrating and useful.