The Battle of ‘Isms’ in Kate Chopin's the Awakening

Abstract

Abstract This article will focus primarily on the ending of The Awakening: A Solitary Soul, probably the most discussed and debated part of Kate Chopin’s novel. The ending can be best understood if the novel is read as an exercise in late Transcendentalist philosophy, with Gothic undertones, plus realist, social commentary and modernist concerns. Walt Whitman’s hedonism meets Guy de Maupassant’s melancholy in a novel that speaks about multiple awakenings (hedonistic, erotic, artistic) but also about several deaths, all necessary for the creation of a new female consciousness.