the awakening and selected short stories

With several hours to kill before an appointment, I decided to pop inside a bookstore to pick up something 'short but old.' In pursuit of this end, I solicited the aid of the shop lady-one of those former English majors who've evidently forgotten everything they might have once learned in university. Chopin really had a knack for conveying emotions without much dialogue. At times I felt for this character and at times I was frustrated with her.

Seeing this simply as a tragic story of a selfish, oppressed woman, it is wonderful. I don't agree with her ways of escaping them, especially what she did to her children! Is that what feminists want to use as an example? I don't want to give too much away for someone who hasn't read this, but her actions in this book are too extreme. This stuff was never for her and she tries to escape them. The Awakening is a story of a woman who feels bound and oppressed by her marriage and by motherhood. The feminist themes are there, no doubt, but I don't think that Chopin intended it to be used as an example of what a woman in a similar situation should do. I saw this as a tragic story, not as the example that feminists having been using it as for decades.

I loved this story for the beautiful writing and the intricate way of exploring the life of a tragic woman.

The awakening and selected short stories