The Awakening

I very much enjoyed this story, almost hard to believe that it was written in 1899! I can imagine that it was very shocking to read of a woman’s sexual awakening. I found the opening imagery very interesting, could this beautiful bird in the cage symbolize Edna? Very interesting that in the opening lines Chopin is having a beautiful and caged creature telling satin to go away, to get out. And in French yet, the …

…beginning to feel about Robert as “she watched his figure pass in and out of the strips of moonlight” --this happens twice at the end of chapter ten. This is symbolic of Edna’s struggle with the concept of romantic versus sexual love. Is that why his figure passes IN and OUT of the strips of moonlight? Its almost as if Chopin conveys this struggle within a single line and repeats that line for emphasis!