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Kate Chopin began writing when she was widowed at the age of 32 to support herself and her six children, her stories and sketches were published in magazines and were well accepted as was her first novel At Fault, she gained national recognition during the 1890s as a member of the local-colour movement focusing attention upon the distinctive regional cultures of America. She lived in New Orleans and northwest Louisiana for many years where she got to know the Creole culture. In 1899 her second novel The Awakening, a novella rather of only 116 pages, was published ending her literary career with a bang because of its scandalous content. It slumbered for about 70 years and was then awakened (!) by the women's rights movement.

What was considered scandalous at the turn of the last but one century? The story begins at Grande Isle in the Gulf of Mexico where wealthy Creole families from New Orleans spend their summer holidays, in fact the women and children do, the men only come down for the weekend. We get to know 40-year-old Mr Pontellier, his wife Edna, 28 years old, and their two small sons. There are two other families and a pianist whose names are mentioned as well as two lovers and a woman in black who remain anonymous. With the exception of Edna all protagonists are flat, we learn more about the ones whose names are mentioned than about the others, but they don't change, they never surprise, their function is merely to interact with Edna thus showing the different facets of her character. I see the nameless lovers and the woman in black as symbolic whose significance becomes clear only later on.

Robert Lebrun is visiting his mother who runs the holiday facility as he does every summer playing with the guests' children and flirting with the ladies. This summer he's the constant companion of Edna who's only two years older than he is. Edna is not a Catholic Creole but a Presbyterian from Kentucky and feels a bit of an outsider among the other guests, Robert's attention flatters her and does her good.

Madame Ratignolle, a woman of Edna's age she has befriended asks Robert to leave Edna alone. "She is not one of us; she is not like us. She might make the unfortunate blunder of taking you seriously." This remark takes the innocence out of the relationship, Robert is angry but has to admit to himself that he has indeed fallen in love with Edna. Head over heals he escapes to Mexico where he had been offered a job some time before.

And Edna? She

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