The Awakening

Book excerpt: Mrs. Chopin's most ambitious work, and that by many regarded as her greatest achievement, is 'The Awakening'. It was written in the belief that in this larger form she could best develop the qualities of her talent. The book shows breadth of view, sincerity, art of the finest kind, a deep knowledge of the woman soul, and accurate individualized character delineation. Edna, the wife of Leonce Pontellier, and mother of two children, is aroused by the simple love of a young Creole to the knowledge of demands in her rich passionate nature that cannot be satisfied by her wifely and maternal duties.Without a fitting education she tries to realize her self at the expense of her functions. Meeting with insurmountable obstacles in society and in her own soul, she surrenders life rather than her new independence.