UNIT 7 CRITICAL APPROACHES TO THE

A WAKENING: FEMINIST,
PSYCHOANALYTICAL, OTHERS
Structure
7.0 Objectives
7.1 lntroduction
7.2 The Awakening and the Age
7.3 Feminist Approach to The Awakening
7.4 Psychoanalytical Approach to The Awakening
7.5 Symbolism in The Awakening
7.6 Let Us Sum Up
7.7 Answers to Self Check Exercises
7.8 Glossary

7.0 OBJECTIVES
The objective of this unit is to familarise you with a few critical approaches
that may be pertinent to the analysis of Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening.
We will however, not go into too many details on these approaches in this unit
as several of these critical approaches will be discussed in Unit 33 in Block 6 .

7.1 INTRODUCTION
Critical approaches may be defined very simply as David Daiches does in the
Introduction to the second edition of Critical Approaches to Literature as a
way of illuminating "both the nature of literature and the nature of criticism"
and as "important ways" in which literature (in our case the novel, The
Awakening) can be discussed. Keeping this in mind let us begin by looking
very briefly at the novel and then proceed to examining the feminist approach.
- - - -- - - - - - -

7.2 THE A WAKENING AND THE AGE

The novel as you already known was written and publishes towards the end of
the nineteenth century, 1899 to be precise. It was literally the end of the
nineteenth century and the nineteenth century as we are all aware was the
Victorian age in England. Approximately a period of sixty years from the
1830s to the 1890s and an age defined by its moral stance and the extreme
deference to conventions. It was an age when a man could not smoke in public
(today smoking is banned by most countries including our own country due to
health reasons, but during the Victorian age, it was thought of as indecorous)
or a woman, ride a bicycle!

But it was also the age of relative peace in England while America was faced
with the scars of the Civil War (1 861 -65) but, at the same time there was also
interaction between the American and the European writers and it was an age
of what Edward Albert calls "spacious intellectual horizons, noble endeavour,
and bright aspirations. The novel as we have seen in the earlier unit (Unit 6 )
 was a controversial one as it dealt with issues then thought of to be taboo.. . Critical Approaches to The
and did not receive its due then. It was re-discovered nearly sixty years later Awakening: Feminist,
and then promptly claimed by feminists. Given the theme of the novel it PsychOanalyfical'Others
obviously lends itself to serious critical engagement as we may have discerned
I
from the earlier units. In the next section, we will look at the feminist
approach to literature in some detail as a way of examining the issues that is
dealt with in this novel.

Let us begin this section by quoting Anand Prakash who says that,

...a signiJcant area of suppressed identities in the contemporary novel

relates to women in all societies, irrespective of race or class. Most of
the novels in the twentieth century present women with a bias. Scarcely
any light is shed on the question of women's exploitation under the
pressure of home, marriage and the overarching patriarchy. (Unit 33,
Block 6)

Such feeling was to create the feminist approach to literature that became a
major contending force in the late 1970s when feminist theory came to be
applied to linguistic and literary material. Much of feminist critical theory is
derived from the works of the French feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir in
particular her book The Second Sex or Le Dewrigme Sexe published in 1949.
Beauvoir's main contention was that when men were associated with
humanity then women were very often relegated to a lesser space/ a lower/
inferior position in society. Critics after Beauvoir strengthened this debate by
focusing on language as a tool of male dominance while looking at the manner
in which the man's point of view was therefore, presented as the point of
view. Then there were critics who felt that women not only have different
experiences from men but also write differently. Critics such as Heltne
Cixous tried to look at the "essential connection between women's body
whose sexual pleasure has been repressed, and women's writing" (Murfin and
Ray, The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, 1998, p 123).

This by the way is just the beginning of the discussion on the feminist critical
approach to literature and The Awakening. You could read up more on
feminist theory and feminist critical approaches if you would like to learn
more about this approach. Coming back to the novel The Awakening, let us
look at the feminist issues depicted through the character of Edna Pontellier.

Some of the issues that come to mind are, the notion of women being viewed
as personal property by the men in the novel. For instance, if we look at the
time period and the culture in which the novel has been set, there are
innumerable instances that indicate the fact that men simply thought of their
wives as personal property. It almost appears as if they did not know any
better or could not even conceive of the fact that their wives were independent
people with a mind of their own as is the case with Edna Pontellier. This may
also be discerned when we look critically at what L&oncePontellier has to say
about his wife Edna Pontellier as well as in the narrator's voice.

The woman in question (in this case, Edna) is of course helpless till she is
awakened, and feels a sense of hopelessness and entrapment in her marriage
as well as within the walls of domesticity. The awakening of Edna of course
has disastrous consequences as it ultimately results in her suicide as we see
The Novel: An towards the end of the novel. The Awakening is also a very good illustration of
Introduction how society too enforces the norms of conventionality by isolating anybody
who dares defy its norms and particularly so a woman daring to do so.
Moreover, the novel depicts very clearly how society imposes its norms and
how some women such as, Adele Ratignolle find both economic as well as
social reward in conforming whereas, Edna Pontellier does not do so and
society finds this non-conformity a sign of rebellion and does not look upon
these acts of transgression with sympathy.

In fact, society punishes these so called rebels through isolation fearing that
such flawed characters might challenge society's very existence. Edna
Pontellier after her awakening (in this case the first awakening, which may be
looked upon as a sexual awakening, when she thinks of herself as a woman
with desire) is a changed woman and for her, her artistic as well as sexual
desire are important whereas, tradition and conventionality are seen as those
imposed and therefare thrust upon women are not desirable. Then again, there
are instances when Leonce Pontellier thinks his wife's aspirations are merely
trivial and frivolous and that he can actually make her conform to his way of
life, which is in a sense a very difficult thing for Edna Pontellier to accept and
she finds the whole exercise painful and frustrating.

The awakened (seAually awakened, at this stage) Edna also emerges as a

character who, is seeking to take control of her own life and her own feelings
as someone who wishes escape form the confines of marriage, domesticity and
even mother hood more than cling to the safety of a husband, home and
hearth. Moreover, Edna finds herself struggling with her feelings of
motherhood or lack of it, as she also realises what society dictates as
motherhood and being a mother. These instances that we have talked about
are some points indicative of the manner in which feminists could approach
the study of this text.

In the next section, we shall look at what the psychoanalytical approach to

literature is about and we shall try and suggest pointers to examining the novel
under study with this approach in mind.

Exercise I
1. What is the feminist approach to the study of literature?

2. Can you us6 the feminist approach to analyse The Awakening?

7.4 PSYCHOANALYTICAL APPROACH TO THE Critical Approaches to The
Awakening: Feminist,
A WAKENING Psychoanalytical, Others
The psychoanalytical approach to literature derives from the work of the
Austrian Sigmund Freud (1856- 1939) a psychoanalyst by profession. He
was the pioneer of psychoanalytical criticism. He developed "a language that
described, a model that explained, a theory that encompassed human
psychology," (The B e d e d Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, 1998,
Murfin and Ray, p. 31 I), all directly or indirectly related to the nature of the
unconscious mind. Freud identified three components of the human psyche -
the id, the ego and the super ego. The id according to Freud is the
"predominantly passionate, irrational, unknown, and unconscious part of the
psyche." The ego "which is predominantly rational, logical, orderly, and
conscious." The ego is also the mediator between the id and the super ego.
The super ego according to Freud is that part of the human psyche that
internalises the norms and mores of society. Implying, that a reflection of
societal norms and mores may be looked at as "external" or "outside the self'
and as a self check in- built mechanism that makes moral judgement and tells
us to make sacrifices even if we know that such sacrifices may not be in our
best interest.

Sigmund Freud also believed that as human beings we all have what he calls
"repressed wishes and fears" (p. 312) that have been pushed under the carpet
or the surface by the super ego in its capacity as moral guardian and that
which has been pushed even further by the ego into the unconscious realm of
the human psyche. These repressions are then manifested in the form of
dreams, in language as the Freudian slip and in creative activity that, as Freud
says, "may produce art (including literature), and in neurotic behaviour"
(p.3 12). Freud also talks about the Oedipus complex, and used the analysis of
dreams as "a tool for uncovering our repressed feelings and memories." Freud
was of the opinion that "repression" surfaces in dreams, masked in symbolic
form.

Carl Gustav Jung an analytical psychologist developed a theory of "the

collective unconscious, a repository of shared unconscious memories dating
back to the origins of literature" (p. 3 13). According to Jungian theory, a great
work of literature is not a disguised expression of its author's repressed wishes
(as thought by Freud), but " a manifestation of desires once held by the whole
human race (but that are now repressed because of the advent of civilisation)
(p. 3 13). The French theorist Jacques Lacan "focuses more on language and
language related issues. He extends Freud's theory of dreams, literature and
their interpretation; he has also added the element of language to Freud's
emphasis on psyche and gender. For Lacan, the unconscious is a language and
dreams a form of discourse. "Thus, we may study dreams psychoanalytically
in order to learn more about the unconscious. Lacan identifies three stages of
development: (1) pre- Oedipal stage/ the pre- verbal stage, (2) the mirror
stage/ imaginary stage and (3) the "I" stage/ stage of laws, language and
society. (p. 3 10).
The Novel: An Exercise I1
Introduction
1. What is the contribution of Freud, Jung and Lacan to psychoanalytical
studies?

7.5 SYMBOLISM IN THE A WAKENING

The reason why I have chosen to talk about the psychoanalytical approach is
essentially to draw your attention to symbols and symbolism in the novel The
Awakening. Symbols stand for or suggest something else, something larger,
something, more complex - often an idea or a range of inter- related ideas,
attitudes and practices, (p. 319). The word symbolic as stated in Unit 5,
section 5.5 comes from the Greek word symballein to mean, "throw together".
Keeping in mind what has been said about symbols and symbolism there, we
shall now proceed to look at some of the symbols and their significance in The
Awakening.

Simply put, symbols may be recognised as objects, characters, figures, or

colours used to represent abstract ideas1 concepts. There are several symbols
that come to mind when I think of The Awakening. You may have noticed
these as well but may or may not have recognised them or looked at them as
symbols. Or you may have already recognised them as symbols and gone
ahead and analysed them as well! In any case, let me begin by talking about
the symbol of birds in the novel. Birds stand for something in this novel. The
birds that have been described, discussed and any bird imagery that is drawn
up represents images of entrapment in The Awakening. The caged birds
signify Edna Pontellier's own entrapment within the confines of her marriage
and children. It could also be indicative of the entrapment of all women or
women in general in the Victorian Age, as we do know the position of women
then. Madam Lebrun's parrot and the mocking bird could be looked upon as
signifying Edna Pontellier and Madame Reisz as well. Since both the birds are
in captivity their movements are restricted, similarly, the movement of the
women in the novel too are restricted and limited by the conventions and
traditions laid down by society and particularly a rigid one at that. They are so
severely restricted in their movement that at times, they fail to even
communicate with the world around them. For instance, Edna Pontellier is not
able to articulate her innermost anguish clearly even to her husband or to
herself for that matters, or any other character in the novel. She tries to escape
from the narrow confines of society, the domesticity of her marriage and her
children. She sets up a place entirely for herself away from her husband and
her children: the pigeon house, and finds solace in the fact that her new home
is symbolic of her independence, but we as readers are aware that the pigeon
house is in fact, just "two steps away" and really indicative of her own innate
inability to remove herself entirely from her former life.

Her friend ~ademoiselleReisz tells Edna Pontellier that she will need to have
very strong wings in order to survive the turmoil that she'll face if she intends
to act on her love for Robert Lebrun. By the time she sets up the pigeon house, Critical Approaches to The
we know that she has gone away to Mexico. Mademoiselle Reisz warns Edna Awakening: Feminist,
Pontellier saying: Psychoanalytical, Others

The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and
prejudice rnttst have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the
weakling bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth" (Chapter XXVII,
p. 79, Edited by Margo Culley, Wordsworth Norton & C: New York,
1994).

Then there are the critics of the novel who also use the final imagery of the
bird to argue that Edna Pontellier's sucide at the end of the novel is, in fact, a
sign of defeat, both for her as an individual as well as for all women in
general.

A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling,
fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water."

While these critics cite this quotation from Ch XXXIX, p. 108 of the text, as
an example of Edna's and women's defeat in general, some other critics argue
that if the symbol of the birds is to signify not Edna Pontellier's individual
defeat but that of the collective defeat of the women in the Victorian age, then
Edna Pontellier's suicide/ final awakening may also be looked upon as
representing the fall, tradition1 convention that in a sense, may be said to have
been achieved by Edna Pontellier's suicide.

We have already talked about the symbolism of the sea in Unit 5, but we can
always take another look at the sea that is a major symbol in the novel, here as
well. The sea has been used as a symbol by many authors and of course we
must not forget the images of the sea in our own myths as well as the images
in the Bible. In particular I am talking about two major works that you must
have read or if not, you must have definitely heard about - Herman
Melville's Moby Dick (1851) and Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the
Sea (written in Cuba in 1951 and published in 1952). Both these novels
(actually the latter is a novella or a short novel or a long short story, just under
a hlindred pages) use symbolism and the sea also figures in these novels in a
big way. The sea may be said to be signalling a sense of space, boundless and
timeless, a sense of freedom from life's shores and hence, from life's trials
and temptations as well. It is interesting to note that Edna Pontellier has tried
learning swimming unsuccessfully earlier on but she is taught by Robert
Lebrun and learns to swim and feels the sea and the surf beckoning her
throughout the novel. She is said to be seduced by the sound of the surf, " The
voice of the surf is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamouring,
murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to
lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation" (Chapter VI, p. 14), and she
succumbs to the temptation only when she has actually been empowered (by
her act of learning to swim successfully). She is also aware of her and by
extension human being's place in the scheme of things as is obvious from the
next quote in the same chapter, " 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 in the world within and about her" (p.14).
Throughout he novel there is a sense of the unknown, the wild, - the sea and
the surf calling out to her. Moreover, if we look at the sea not as seaper se but
as water then we get another picture of the symbolism of the sea in The
Awakening. If we look at the sea as water then we would realise that the sea
The Novel: An then symbolises ritual cleansing1 the Christian concept of baptism/ re-birth.
Introduction And it is therefore apt that Edna Pontellier should drown or swim away to her
death symbolising her re-birth - a re-birth of sorts.

The Awakening is very rich in symbolism as mentioned earlier and it is now

up to you to take the initiative and look at symbols in the novel. We have
merely pointed out what symbolism is and shown you examples of how
symbolism works. We expect you to look for other symbols in the novel as
you read it. However, we'd still like to point out a few major symbols to help
you in your task but we expect you to explore the symbolism behind these.
For instance, look at the way in which Edna Pontellier and women in the
novel are presented to us (the readers) in the novel. ...The mother- women
seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them,
fluttering about with extended wings when any harm, real or imaginary,
threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their
children, worshipped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface
themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels" (Chapter IV,
p.9).
Then look at the treatment of art by Kate Chopin in The Awakening. Art
seems to awaken Edna Pontellier. Take the case of the bird imagery in the
novel. Birds and clothes are other symbols that you could locate and analyse.
Then there is the whole symbolism generated by food/ meals, the symbolism
of the house, Edna Pontellier's desire to learn swimming, the symbol of the
moon and finally the ocean, the gulf or the sea. Your list could also include
music, or the playing of the piano and sleep as a symbol.

Exercise I11

1. Analyse The Awakening from the point of view of symbolism.

7.6 LET US SUM UP

In this unit, we have tried to look at several critical approaches to literature
and in particular to the novel, in this case, The Awakening. We have also
defined three major approaches and summarised these approaches very briefly
while pointing out instances from the novel or indicating how we could
analyse or approach the novel from the perspectives of these approaches. In
particular, we have dealt with the symbolic approach to the study of The
Awakening in great detail.
7.7 ANSWERS TO SELF CHECK EXERCISES Critical Approaches to The
Awakening: Feminist,
Psychoanalytical, Others
Exercise I

1. Feminist approach to the study of literature is when we approach a text

using a woman's perspective and raise questions about women's issues.
Section 7.3 should be read carefully.

2. Section 7.3 should be read carefully.

Exercise I1

1. Read Section 7.4 and then write your answer.

Exercise I11

I . Read Section 7.5,-then read the novel again and answer this question. You
could begin by defining symbolism and then locating various symbols in
the text, after which you could examine and analyse these symbols.
The Novel: An
Introduction SUGGESTED READINGS
I . . Abrams, M.H A Glossary of Literary Terms,
Seventh Edition, 1941 ; rpt. New
Delhi: Harcourt, 2001.

2. Allen, Walter The English Novel, 1958.

3. Albert, Edward A History of English Literature,

Oxford University Press:
Calcutta) 1988

4. Bradbury, Malcolm The Modem British Novel 1878-

2001, Revised Edition, England:
Penguin Books, 2001

5. Childers J & G Hentzi (Eds) The Columbia Dictionary of

Modem Literary Terms and
Cultural Criticism, New York:
Columbia University Press, 1995

6. Chopin, Kate The Awakening, (Ed) Margo

Cullen, New York: A Norton
Critical Edition, 1994

7. Daiches, David Critical Approaches to Literature,

Second Edition, Calcutta: Orient
Longman Ltd, 1989

8. Forster, E M Aspects of the Novel, England:

Penguin Books, 2000

9. Murfin, R & Supriya Ray The Bedford Glossary of Critical

and Literary Terms, London:
Macmillian Press, 1998