Discussion Questions on The Awakening (and "The Yellow Wallpaper")

1. Does the description of Edna’s transformation in The Awakening imply a critique of region, class, culture or a whole patriarchal (male-dominated) social order?

2. Does Chopin envision an alternative for a character like Edna? or does the novel simply display the “friction” created by then current values and social roles? (What’s the significance of her attending Mdm. Ratignolle’s childbirth?)

3. How do Mariguieta, Mdm. Reisz, and Ratignolle live within the gender roles of their time and place? Do they confront the same difficulties as Edna? Why or why not?

4. What are the consequences of the “Thelma and Louise” ending? Does it emphasize or undercut the favorable impression the narrator has tried to convey of Edna, her desires and frustrations?

5. How would you characterize the person into whom Edna seems desirous of transforming herself? An artist? A single-woman? An independent person?

6. In what ways does the situation of the speaker in “The Yellow Wallpaper” paralell Edna’s?

7. How does the activity of writing figure in this story and why is it important?

8. What symbolic significance do the room and the wall-paper itself seem to hold?

9. Does the conclusion to this story resemble that of Chopin’s The Awakening in your opinion? Why or why not?