Critics Say, I Say

Critics Say, I Say Kate Chopin’s The Awakening

Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening was widely panned by literary critics when it was published in 1899. Considered immoral and vulgar for its time, the novel was largely ignored in America until the 1970s. Read the various contemporary reviews of The Awakening. In the spaces below, discuss the merits and the limitations of each literary criticism. Be sure to give thoughtful consideration to Chopin’s audience and the cultural and contextual backdrop against which the novel was published.

From Book News, March 1899 The Awakening is “a novel so keen in its analysis of character, so subtle in its presentation of emotional effects that it seems to reveal life as well as to represent it” (Chopin and Culley 161).

From The Mirror, May 1899 “There is no fault to find with the telling of the story, there are no blemishes in its art, but it leaves one sick of human nature and so one feels—cui bono! [What’s the point?]” (Chopin and Culley 162).

From the St. Louis Daily Globe-Democrat, May 1899 “After reading the whole story, it can not be said that either of the principal characters claims admiration or sympathy” (Chopin and Culley 163). From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 1899 “It is not a tragedy, for it lacks the high motive of tragedy. The woman, not quite brave enough, declines to a lower plane and does not commit a sin ennobled by love. But it is terribly tragic. Compassion, not pity, is excited, for pity is for those who sin, and Edna Pontellier only offended —weakly, passively, vainly offended” (Chopin and Culley 164).

From the Chicago Times-Herald, June 1899 “That the book is strong and that Miss Chopin has a keen knowledge of certain phases of feminine character will not be denied. But it was not necessary for a writer of so great refinement and poetic grace to enter the overworked field of sex fiction” (Chopin and Culley 166).

From The Outlook, June 1899 “The Awakening … is faithful enough in its presentation of certain phases of human passion and downward drift of character, but the story was not really worth telling, and its disagreeable glimpses of sensuality are repellant” (Chopin and Culley 166). From the New Orleans Times-Democrat, June 1899 “Certainly there is throughout the story an undercurrent of sympathy for Edna, and nowhere a single note of censure of her totally unjustifiable conduct” (Chopin and Culley 167).

From the New York Times, June 1899 “…particularly poignant is the woman’s awakening, as Mrs. Chopin tells it. The author has a clever way of managing a difficult subject and wisely tempers the emotional elements found in the situation” (Chopin and Culley 169).

From The Nation, August 1899 “The tint and air of Creole New Orleans and the Louisiana seacoast are conveyed to the reader with subtle skill, and among the secondary characters are several that are lifelike. But we cannot see that literature or the criticism of life is helped by the detailed history of the manifold and contemporary love affairs of a wife and mother” (Chopin and Culley 173).

From The Congregationalist, August 1899 “It is a languorous, passionate story of New Orleans and vicinity, hinging on the gradual yielding of a wife to the attractions of other men than her husband. It is a brilliant piece of writing, but unwholesome in its influence. We cannot commend it” (Chopin and Culley 173).