Clay JacksonEssay Preview: Clay JacksonReport this essayThe Awakening was destined for success. One month before Chopins novel was published, Lucy Monroe reviewed The Awakening for the March 1899, issue of Book News. Monroes review praises Chopins work as a “remarkable novel” and applauds it as “subtle and a brilliant kind of art” (Toth 329). Monroe further depicts the novel as “so keen in its analysis of character, so subtle in its presentation of emotional effects that it seems to reveal life as well as represent it” (Toth 328). Monroes was a glowing review indeed, and undoubtedly heightened the mounting anticipation with which Chopin, her colleagues, and her publisher eagerly awaited the release of The Awakening.
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Most critics regarded the novel as vulgar, unwholesome, unholy, and a misappropriation of Chopins exceptional literary talent. Many reviewers regarded the novels aggrandizement of sexual impurity as immoral, and thus they condemned the novels theme.
That Chopin was already a successful and popular writer further fueled the awkward consternation with which critics viewed The Awakening. In fact, because of Chopins success with her earlier works, “Bayou Folk,” “At Fault,” and “A Night in Acadie,” critics expected more of what Chopin was known for as a regionalist writer–realism and local color. They expected to read a novel rich in descriptive language, colorful characters, and the sights and sounds of Louisiana Creole life. Instead of local color, however, critics were shocked and dismayed at Edna Pontelliers behavior and considered Chopins novel morbid and lacking literary value. In most cases, critics were at a loss to explain the reasons why an artist with Chopins undisputed literary talent would contribute to what one reviewer called “the overworked field of sex fiction”
In Chopins masterpiece, The Awakening, we encounter a husband beset by the “man-instinct of possession” and a woman who discovers that she needs to be a person as well as a wife and mother. The novel evoked outrage from critics, readers, and library censors primarily because Chopin allowed the protagonist, Edna Pontellier, to take control of her own life without criticizing her for doing so.
For many years, twentieth-century critics dismissed Chopin as a local color writer. But after her Complete Works became available, this viewpoint became untenable, and critics began attempting to place Chopins works in their proper place in the canon of American literature. The influence of Hawthorne, Whitman, Henry James, and especially Maupassant on Chopins work has been documented. Elements of romanticism, Transcendentalism, realism, and naturalism have been noted, thus placing Chopin squarely in the mainstream of nineteenth-century literary currents. Per Seyersted, in particular, shows that Chopins works hold kinship with twentieth-century existentialism. And numerous