g was tremendously negative; some critics said that it was pure pornography and that Kate was an immoral woman. Others attacked the theme, saying it was stale and distasteful (“Kate Chopin” 4). Kate was even denied membership in several art clubs; any many believed this criticism caused her to give up writing altogether. Many professional criticisms were written about this book. And even today there is still some controversy over the meaning of this novel. In a criticism written by George Spangler, he questioned the suicidal conclusion of The Awakening, saying that it undermined the good portrayal of Edna Pontellier, therefore making the novel not nearly as much a masterpiece as it should have been (250). He saw Edna as a strong-willed character, who put her family aside to find sexual fulfillment elsewhere. He saw the fact that she swam to her death as completely out of character (254).In another criticism, Kenneth Rosen focused on the ambiguity of the novel. He called the novel an American myth, defining a myth to present “simply that which is universally complex and which rarely lends itself to resolution” (198). The most important symbol of ambiguity, Rosen explained, was that of the sea. He described the sea as representing both life and death: her “awakening” and her demise. He saw the question in the novel of how an American woman’s life was related to her struggle for freedom and individuality.In yet another criticism by Margaret Mitsutani, she pointed to signs of narcissism in the character of Edna in The Awakening (3). She, as well as many other critics, had taken the position that Edna committed suicide as an alternative to giving up her physical passion to her devotion to art. Mitsutani viewed Edna’s suicide “as much as an act of self-preservation as self-destruction” (12). She also included in her criticisms what many others have written, the fact that Chopin wrote...
