Kate Chopin 'The Awakening' and its Tacit Moral Endorsement

(Image courtesy of Grand Isle government site) In my 'American Literature II' class, we are finishing Kate Chopin's The Awakening (1899). Early reviews show a turn-of-the-century obsession with the tale's morality. For example, one contemporary reviewer from the Los Angeles Sunday Times characterized the book as "unhealthily introspective and morbid in feeling, as the story of that sort of woman must inevitably be" (25 June 1899). The book is split into two halves, with the earlier version in Grand Isle, La, the second part in New Orleans. In both sections, I suggest that Chopin creates a sort of delicate 'moral balance' within her work. She seems to be distinctly aware of public opinion, as she shows us Edna's seduction with Alcee but not the actual sexual act after chapter 31. In "The Storm," she shows sex between her two protagonists in explicit ways. In The Awakening, desire is not just physical, of course. The story revolves around Edna Pontellier's love for Robert Lebrun. In the penultimate scene, Robert and Edna, cloistered in Edna's small house, finally, explicitly admit their love for one another. Robert admits, after a gentle caress and kiss with Edna, "Now you know. Now you know what I have been fighting against since last summer at Grand Isle" (108). Chopin seems to be pushing the reader tacitly to accept that desire has currency in the book, and an acceptable one at that. Put another way, the reader is pressed not to judge Edna's actions and affairs; we endorse this moment of delayed longing, "one full of love and tenderness," because Chopin has somehow bracketed off such late-19th-century moral judgments within her novelistic world (108). In a thoughtful response in the comment ssection, build off of some of the argument above regarding her morality; isolate your own thoughts on how Chopin is balancing moral expectation, the public, and her portrayal of desire in the book.