The Awakening

3.5⭐️

Glad I finally read this. The writing is beautiful and I love how unlikeable a lot of the characters, including Edna, were to me. She is so her own person and the author is not trying to make her a stand-in for a generic feminist/self righteous woman. She approaches every situation in this book in ways that I found deeply unrelateable, which again made me feel that she was a truly distinct and individual character.

That being said, the ending, while somewhat in-character and definitely poetic, did dampen the overall message/themes of the book. Yet another literary woman who tries to emancipate herself from the patriarchy but cannot escape authorial punishment. Even female authors took this route. Also while there was one line where Edna acknowledges that even Robert wouldn't make her happy long term, it does sort of seem like the main reason she decides to free herself from patriarchal/marital control is because she gets a crush on a different man. Which kind of negates some of the independence of it all.

Which brings me to some of my issues with this book. 1. Gender roles. The way the characters are described is so deeply entrenched in gender roles and stereotypes (even for the time, there are other books from the time and even from many years earlier that do this much less) - women are flaky, dreamy, sensual, poetic, irrational, passionate etc. Men are businesslike, rational, calm, and sometimes playboys. That's it. 2. Race and class. Given the subject matter the complete lack of awareness of the experience of women with less privilege/freedom is noticeable. Even if Edna were to occasionally acknowledge her servants as people that would help. Not to mention a few scenes where characters heavily use racist stereotypes and descriptions when talking about different groups of people. It is obviously a product of its time but still worth noting when read from a modern lens.