This
title was Kate Chopin's original name for her masterpiece novella of
1898, The
Awakening. In this controversial
work, Kate Chopin crossed literary boundaries by exploring a woman's
identity
beyond the fulfillment of marriage and motherhood.
Drawing upon the sensuous qualities found in
the Gulf
of Mexico
region near New Orleans, the story traces the
evolution of Mrs. Edna Pontellier's awareness as a sexual being: "the
voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, clamoring, murmuring,
inviting
the soul to wander for a spell in the abysses of solitude
"
Kate
Chopin, born Catherine O'Flaherty, was greatly influenced in her
childhood by strong autonomous women, her widowed mother and
grandmother, her
great-grandmother, and the Sisters of St. Louis Academy of the Sacred
Heart who
urged her to "Live a life of the mind as well as the life of the
home." By all accounts, she was
happily married to Oscar Chopin in New Orleans
until his sudden death after only twelve years of marriage. She returned to St. Louis
with their six children, and the age of 39 began to write.
Her work explored difficult themes including
post Civil War racism and female and male relationships.
Though many women celebrated The Awakening,
the searing reviews by the male-dominated literary community in 1899
brought
her brief critically acclaimed career to an abrupt end.
She died five years later at the age of 54.
