Monday and Tuesday

Welcome back!! 

Review - Symbols in The Awakening

Passage Analysis:

1. “You are burnt beyond recognition,” he added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage. (4)

• Turn to the third paragraph on page 120. How does Chopin’s diction carry more weight after reading the history?
• Why is sunbathing considered low class?

1. Mrs. Pontellier’s eyes were quick and bright; they were a yellowish brown, about the color of her hair. She had a way of turning them swiftly upon an object and holding them there as if lost in some inward maze of contemplation or thought. (5)

• Pay close attention to the contrast between the inward and outward persona. What insight does this passage give us into Edna’s character?

1. Robert rolled a cigarette. He smoked cigarettes because he could not afford cigars, he said. He had a cigar in his pocket which Mr. Pontellier had presented him with, and he was saving it for his after-dinner smoke. (5)

• Class is important in Southern Victorian culture. How do we see it here?

1. He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation. (7)

• How does Chopin introduce us to the relationship between Edna and Leonce?

1. Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking after. Then he lit a cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke it.

• What does this passage say about traditional gender roles in Victorian America?

1. Mrs. Pontellier was quite sure Raoul had no fever. He had gone to bed perfectly well, she said, and nothing had ailed him all day. Mr. Pontellier was too well acquainted with fever symptoms to be mistaken. He assured her the child was consuming at that moment in the next room.

• Compare the ideals set forth in the Mary Cassatt painting “Mother and Child” to Edna as a mother. What do you notice? Is she adhering to the ideals of True Womanhood?

Mother and Child (Baby Getting up from His Nap), c. 1899

1.  He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother’s place to look after children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his hands full with his brokerage business. He could not be in two places at once; making a living for his family on the street, and staying at home to see that no harm befell them. He talked in a monotonous, insistent way.

       Mrs. Pontellier sprang out of bed and went into the next room. She soon came back and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning her head down on the pillow. She said nothing, and refused to answer her husband when he questioned her. When his cigar was smoked out he went to bed, and in half a minute he was fast asleep. (12)

• Same question.

1.  It was then past midnight. The cottages were all dark. A single faint light gleamed out from the hallway of the house. There was no sound abroad except the hooting of an old owl in the top of a water-oak, and the everlasting voice of the sea, that was not uplifted at that soft hour. It broke like a mournful lullaby upon the night. (7)

• Pay close attention to any reference to water, especially the ocean/sea. Why would vast, open expanses be important here? What is Chopin guiding us towards in terms of our understanding of Edna?

1.  The tears came so fast to Mrs. Pontellier’s eyes that the damp sleeve of her peignoir no longer served to dry them. She was holding the back of her chair with one hand; her loose sleeve had slipped almost to the shoulder of her uplifted arm. Turning, she thrust her face, steaming and wet, into the bend of her arm, and she went on crying there, not caring any longer to dry her face, her eyes, her arms. She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life. They seemed never before to have weighed much against the abundance of her husband’s kindness and a uniform devotion which had come to be tacit and self-understood.

        An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with a vague anguish. It was like a shadow, like a mist passing across her soul’s summer day. It was strange and unfamiliar; it was a mood. She did not sit there inwardly upbraiding her husband, lamenting at Fate, which had directed her footsteps to the path which they had taken. She was just having a good cry all to herself. (8)

• What are the tone words here? What words contribute to the weight of Edna’s melancholy?

1.  And the ladies, selecting with dainty and discriminating fingers and a little greedily, all declared that Mr. Pontellier was the best husband in the world. Mrs. Pontellier was forced to admit that she knew of none better. (9)

• Why the word “discriminating”? What is happening here?

1.  If one of the little Pontellier boys took a tumble whilst at play, he was not apt to rush crying to his mother’s arms for comfort; he would more likely pick himself up, wipe the water out of his eyes and the sand out of his mouth, and go on playing. (9)

• Which parent do you go to when you are hurt? What do you expect from them? What do we learn about Edna here?

1.  In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman. The mother-women seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were 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. (9)

• Compare to the Madonna Ideal. 

Madonna and the unattainable ideal.

The Annunciation - Fra Angelico

The Annunciation - Leonardo Da Vinci

“At an early hour in the evening the Farival twins were prevailed upon to play the piano. They were girls of fourteen, always clad in the Virgin’s colors, blue and white, having been dedicated to the Blessed Virgin at their baptism.” (23)

 Mrs. Pontellier liked to sit and gaze at her fair companion as she might look upon a faultless Madonna. (11) Compare Edna Pontellier to Madame Ratignole. 

She had long wished to try herself on Madame Ratignolle. Never had that lady seemed a more tempting subject than at that moment, seated there like some sensuous Madonna, with the gleam of the fading day enriching her splendid color. (12)

1.  Mrs. Pontellier had brought her sketching materials, which she sometimes dabbled with in an unprofessional way. She liked the dabbling. She felt in it satisfaction of a kind which no other employment afforded her. (12

• What is it about art that draws Edna? What does a blank canvas represent? Why would this appeal to Edna?

1.  The sun was low in the west, and the breeze soft and languorous that came up from the south, charged with the seductive odor of the sea. Children freshly befurbelowed, were gathering for their games under the oaks. Their voices were high and penetrating. (13)

• Pay attention to the diction here. How is the sea described? Think about the allure of the ocean.

1.  “Oh, no,” she answered, with a tone of indecision. “I’m tired; I think not.” Her glance wandered from his face away toward the Gulf, whose sonorous murmur reached her like a loving but imperative entreaty. (13)

• The sea is a theme and a symbol. What does it mean?

1.  A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her,—the light which, showing the way, forbids it.

        At that early period it served but to bewilder her. It moved her to dreams, to thoughtfulness, to the shadowy anguish which had overcome her the midnight when she had abandoned herself to tears. (14)

• Think back to this Blues Brothers clip. how do the two connect?

1.  In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her. This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight—perhaps more wisdom than the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman. (14)

• Think back to the ideals of True Womanhood. What is missing in the equation?

1.  The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation. The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace. (14)

- Think about the sea as a symbol. What color is it? What traits/characteristics does the sea have that draw Edna in?

1.  Mrs. Pontellier was not a woman given to confidences, a characteristic hitherto contrary to her nature. Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life—that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions. (14) 

- Think about the theme of the Public vs. Private Persona. How does it relate to the following quote?

“The polarisation of public and private spheres becomes the foundation upon which the ascendant bourgeoisie constructed the family and it's sexuality. The passionless reproductive wife confined to private domesticity...”

1.  That summer at Grand Isle she began to loosen a little the mantle of reserve that had always enveloped her. There may have been—there must have been—influences, both subtle and apparent, working in their several ways to induce her to do this; but the most obvious was the influence of Adele Ratignolle. The excessive physical charm of the Creole had first attracted her, for Edna had a sensuous susceptibility to beauty. Then the candor of the woman’s whole existence, which every one might read, and which formed so striking a contrast to her own habitual reserve—this might have furnished a link. Who can tell what metals the gods use in forging the subtle bond which we call sympathy, which we might as well call love. (14)

• Juxtapose Edna and Adele. What are their differences?

1.  “No! oh, no!” Edna hastened to say. “I was a little unthinking child in those days, just following a misleading impulse without question. On the contrary, during one period of my life religion took a firm hold upon me; after I was twelve and until-until—why, I suppose until now, though I never thought much about it—just driven along by habit. But do you know,” she broke off, turning her quick eyes upon Madame Ratignolle and leaning forward a little so as to bring her face quite close to that of her companion, “sometimes I feel this summer as if I were walking through the green meadow again; idly, aimlessly, unthinking and unguided.” (17)

• What is the significance of the green meadow? Compare this to the allure of the sea.

1.  She was a grown young woman when she was overtaken by what she supposed to be the climax of her fate. It was when the face and figure of a great tragedian began to haunt her imagination and stir her senses. The persistence of the infatuation lent it an aspect of genuineness. The hopelessness of it colored it with the lofty tones of a great passion.

        The picture of the tragedian stood enframed upon her desk. Any one may possess the portrait of a tragedian without exciting suspicion or comment. (This was a sinister reflection which she cherished.) In the presence of others she expressed admiration for his exalted gifts, as she handed the photograph around and dwelt upon the fidelity of the likeness. When alone she sometimes picked it up and kissed the cold glass passionately.

           Her marriage to Leonce Pontellier was purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate. It was in the midst of her secret great passion that she met him. He fell in love, as men are in the habit of doing, and pressed his suit with an earnestness and an ardor which left nothing to be desired. He pleased her; his absolute devotion flattered her. She fancied there was a sympathy of thought and taste between them, in which fancy she was mistaken. Add to this the violent opposition of her father and her sister Margaret to her marriage with a Catholic, and we need seek no further for the motives which led her to accept Monsieur Pontellier for her husband. (18)

• Look closely at the details and imagery of the passage. Why and how does Edna end up with Leonce?

1.  She was fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way. She would sometimes gather them passionately to her heart; she would sometimes forget them. The year before they had spent part of the summer with their grandmother Pontellier in Iberville. Feeling secure regarding their happiness and welfare, she did not miss them except with an occasional intense longing. Their absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admit this, even to herself. It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her. (19)

• What kind of mother is Edna? What kind of a wife is she? What subtleties do you notice in this passage? 

1. She entered the hall with him during a lull in the dance. She made an awkward, imperious little bow as she went in. She was a homely woman, with a small weazened face and body and eyes that glowed. She had absolutely no taste in dress, and wore a batch of rusty black lace with a bunch of artificial violets pinned to the side of her hair. (25)

• What can we assume about the introduction of M. Reisz? What are the key descriptions that define her character?

1. One piece which that lady played Edna had entitled “Solitude.” It was a short, plaintive, minor strain. The name of the piece was something else, but she called it “Solitude.” 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. (25)

Homework- Read through chapter 9 (IX). 

Wednesday

Reading time (30 min.)

Continue with passage analysis

Homework- Read through chapter 15 (XV).

Thursday

Read Marie Fletcher’s essay “The Southern Woman in Fiction” and discuss the following:

- What are the Creole societal norms in regards to women?

- Define “mother-women”, and what is the significance of that description?

- What is significant about Edna being a Southern, Kentucky Protestant in the midst of a Creole collective of Southern European Catholic women? How does this enhance her character?

- Fletcher wrote this essay in 1966. How does this contribute to the message?

Homework- Read through chapter 22 (XXII).

Friday

Journal Entry - Starbucks “The Way I See It”.

Read Dorthea Dix’s 1897 essay “Are Women Growing Selfish?"

- What is Dix’s argument?

- Dix states, “She has courted persecution, and gone out of her way to become a martyr”. How is Edna a martyr? What connections can you make with this notion?

Deep Dive with Key Issues in the Text

- Cage of Domesticity

- Public vs. Private Persona

- The Sea

Small Group Discussions:

Chapter 16

1. Edna's Transformation: How does Edna's behavior and attitude towards her family and societal expectations begin to change in this chapter? What specific actions or thoughts illustrate this transformation?
2. Symbolism of the Sea: The sea is a recurring symbol in the novel. How does Edna's relationship with the sea evolve in this chapter, and what does it signify about her inner state?

Chapter 17

1. Domestic Discontent: How does Edna's reaction to her domestic responsibilities reflect her growing sense of discontent? What does this reveal about her character and her desires?
2. Interactions with Léonce: Analyze the interactions between Edna and Léonce in this chapter. How do these interactions highlight the differences in their perspectives on marriage and individuality?

Chapter 18

1. Influence of Mademoiselle Reisz: How does Mademoiselle Reisz influence Edna's awakening? What role does she play in Edna's journey towards self-discovery?
2. Art and Expression: Discuss the significance of Edna's interest in painting. How does her art serve as a form of expression and liberation for her?

Chapter 19

1. Edna's Independence: Edna begins to assert her independence more strongly in this chapter. What actions does she take to assert her autonomy, and how do these actions affect her relationships with others?
2. Social Expectations: How does Edna's behavior challenge the social expectations of women during the time period? What are the potential consequences of her defiance?

Chapter 20

1. Role of Music: Music plays a significant role in Edna's awakening. How does the music of Mademoiselle Reisz affect Edna, and what does it symbolize in her journey?
2. Inner Conflict: Explore the inner conflict Edna experiences in this chapter. How does she reconcile her desires with the reality of her situation?

Chapter 21

1. Edna's Visit to Mademoiselle Reisz: What is the significance of Edna's visit to Mademoiselle Reisz in this chapter? How does this visit further her transformation?
2. Letters from Robert: How do the letters from Robert impact Edna? What do they reveal about her feelings and her state of mind?

Chapter 22

1. Edna's Decision to Move: Edna decides to move out of her husband's house. What does this decision signify about her journey towards independence and self-fulfillment?
2. Reactions of Others: How do the reactions of other characters to Edna's decision reflect the societal attitudes towards women's independence at the time?

Homework- Read through chapter  29 (XXIX).