Krantz
English 2710
Discussion Questions

THE AWAKENING--QUESTIONS SET 2

1. How do you respond to Edna, now that you have finished the story? Do you like her and have sympathy for her, or do you consider her selfish? What in the story makes her suicide inevitable?

2. What is Chopin's attitude toward the "mother-women" at Grand Isle? How does this get reflected in Madame Ratignolle's delivery?

3. What is the symbolic significance of the woman in black, contstantly telling her beads and dogging the footsteps of the young lovers?

4. Whay does Endna feel faint and unable to breathe when she goes to church with Robert on the island?

5. What does Robert mean by his poignant note, "Goodbye--because I love you"? What new insight do we have of Robert by the end of the story? Would he have succumbed to Edna's entreaties and had an affair with her?
Provide evidence for whatever stand you take.

6. How do the flower images in the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story symbolize what is happening to Edna?

7. How does the sea represent Edna's awakening to both her sexuality and her sense of self? How does the bird image act as a symbol for Edna?

8. Is the end of the story optimistic or pessimistic about Edna? About the plight of women?