Awakening

"Go away! Go away! For Heaven's sake! That's all right!" These words, rambled out by a brash little parrot, mark the opening, of Kate Chopin's Victorian novel The Awakening. These lines immediately place in the reader's mind a notion that they will have some significance to the story later on, as odd as they may sound. (At least, they did to me). The Awakening is a story of a character who runs into many wallsof …

…for a route to happiness. Yet, in her quest, she found so much disappointment and shame in her existence, that she decided it would be best for all (keeping in mind Adele's last words to her; "Think of the children, Edna. Oh think of the children! Remeber them!" pg. 554) if she simply ended her depressing life. I now refer back to the opening of the story: "Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sparisti!" Edna did just that.