Historical and Cultural Background of The Awakening

The Awakening was written at the end of the nineteenth century. That was a time of tension between the old and the new, the traditional and the modern. The industrialization, urbanization and changing social norms of the turn of the century all contributed to the fact that life was changing. Like all epic turns in time, the citizens of the nineteenth century had mixed feelings about the progressions the twentieth century would hold. You only need to consider the changes we are facing with the coming of the twenty-first century (Internet, gene splicing, etc.) to understand their ambiguous emotions.

There was a World's Exposition (Fair) in Chicago in 1904 that heralded the rise of the machine age. It, along with Darwin's theories of evolution taking hold of the public mind (for an examination of how they affected Chopin, see Bender), the Higher Criticism of the Bible (a field of study that maintained through scientific evidence that the Bible was made up of different manuscripts and not the divine word of God), and the continuing movements in women's suffrage, all contributed to a time when fundamental assumptions were being questioned and cast aside.

Louisiana had its own set of problems that added to the confused feelings. It was a state created out of three different cultures. It is American in many ways, but it is also southern, and Creole. The combination of these three cultural forces was very strong. The aftermath of the Civil War was still reverberating across the nation (Edna's father is a good example).

The Creole culture was very different from the others. It was Catholic (think of John Kennedy's troubles getting elected as a Catholic president), in a Protestant country. The Creole women were very conservative, perhaps the most conservative group in the nation. They were frank and open in discussing their marriages and children, but could do so because their very moral nature did not allow any doubt as to their chastity. They were committed as a group to their husbands and children and had a deep personal and religious commitment to fidelity. Adele is a fine example of this type of woman. In addition to the cultural conflicts in Louisiana, there is also the fact that it was the only state in the nation that operates under a different legal system. The feminist movement of the late nineteenth century did not have much hope in the state. Under the Louisiana Code, patterned after the Napoleonic code of France, a woman belonged to her husband. Article 1388 established the absolute control of the male over the family. Article 1124 equated married women with babies and the mentally ill, all three were deemed incompetent to make a contract.

Elsewhere in the country things were changing. The Industrial Revolution transformed handicrafts, which woman had always done in their homes, into a machine-powered, mass- produced industry. This meant that lower-class women could earn wages as factory workers. This was the beginning of their independence, even though the conditions were hazardous, the pay low, and their income was legally controlled by their husbands or fathers. Middle and upper-class women were still expected to stay at home as idle, decorative symbols of their husbands' wealth. They were, as Virginia Woolf termed it, expected to be angels in the house. They were pregnant frequently due to the restrictions on birth control, they cared for their homes, husbands, and children, played music, sang, or drew to enhance the charm of their homes and to reflect well on their husbands. Wives were possessions, cared for and displayed, who often brought a dowry or inherited wealth to a marriage. They were expected to subordinate their needs to their husband's wishes, in short, they were expected to be Adele.

There were other women who would not stand for this type of role: Lucretia Coffin Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, chief among them. They held the first women's right convention in July of 1848 (two years before Chopin was born) in Seneca Falls New York. They adopted a Declaration of Sentiments patterned after the Declaration of Independence and focused on getting the vote. Suffragists were branded the 'shrieking sisterhood', labeled unfeminine, and accused of immorality. Not very different from the reception The Awakening received upon publication, as we shall see. The suffrage movement and the abolitionist movement grew apace during the Civil War. After the war the abolitionist's surged ahead with an 1868 amendment to the Constitution allowing the vote regardless of race, creed, or color. Not sex. Suffragists pushed on until 1870 when the 15th Amendment allowed the right to vote regardless of color or creed but not gender (that would not come until 1920). Keep this in mind. Not only would Kate Chopin be aware of these changes and use them in the creation of the world of The Awakening, but the people who read the novel would also know the changing state of women.

The reception The Awakening received indicates the climate of the time. Its publication cast a shadow over Kate Chopin and she only managed to publish three more short stories before her death. Contemporary critics were predominately hostile toward the subject matter, but praised the artistry of the writing. Still, despite Willa Cather, a friend of Chopin, being a strong voice of support, newspapers and magazines of the day were filled with such comments as "it is not a healthy book," "sex fiction," "the purport of the story can hardly be described in language fit for publication," "we are well satisfied when Mrs. Pontellier deliberately swims out to her death," "an essentially vulgar story," and "unhealthy introspective and morbid." (Culley, 146-52). Chopin was hurt by such a response, both personally, and as a writer.

As the century drew to a close, it was marked by many changes, personified by the 1904 World's Fair, industry, sexual equality, even the size of the country. Change was everywhere and the population was struggling to come to terms with those developments. In many ways The Awakening encapsulates this struggle and speaks to the painful process that was in store for the country and its women.

c Neal Wyatt (1995)