About the Author

Kate Chopin was born in 1851 to the well-to-do St. Louis couple Eliza and Thomas O’Flaherty. She attended a convent school, took piano and French […]

Overview

The Awakening opens at the summer resort of Grand Isle, a small hotel located 50 miles off of the coast of New Orleans. Grand Isle […]

Setting

Chopin lived in, and generally wrote about, life in the South. In The Awakening, she wrote specifically about Creole society in Louisiana. Creoles saw themselves […]

Social Sensitivity

The Awakening has taken on a new significance since the advent of the women’s movement. Literary debates have raged over the significance of Edna Pontellier’s […]