The Awakening

The Awakening Study Questions

1. The Awakening could be considered a “local color” story because the plot of the story seems like it could be in the gossip column of a newspaper, talking much about affairs and the drama of Edna’s life. The belief that women should obey their husbands completely and do all the housework led Edna to tire of her duties and attempt to become more independent. She developed, psychologically, in this until she believed the complete opposite of what normal society believed. Edna has trouble with the Creole tendency to expect the wife to be the perfect housewife and attend primarily to her husbands needs.

2. Edna married Leonce because he has money and serves as the “perfect” husband; he dotes upon both her and the children and conducts his business to benefit his family. The scene in the very beginning of the story when he rebukes her for not taking care of her children and she cries is a good example of how he might not be a good husband for her. They do not cooperate well together or live together peacefully. Other characters we have learned about marry for love or stay single because they do not love anyone. Edna marries in order to gain something much like those of Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights who marries only to gain something.

3. Mademoiselle Reisz is completely opposite of how the novel’s view of women as mothers and artists mostly because she is unmarried and independent of traditional views of women. Madame Ratignolle coincides with the normal view of women because she is a normal and traditional housewife. They function as what Edna was and what she strives to become as a woman. Edna is more like Mademoiselle Reisz in both the motherly and artistic aspects because she does not always care for her children and is primarily an artist just like Reisz.

4. The background characters, such as the lovers and the lady in black, could represent phases of Edna’s life. The lovers being when she is having affairs with...