This was particularly true of The Awakening, and it owed much of its fame to the excited controversy which arose over its unconventionality. Kate published The Awakening in 1899, during a time when women were expected to stay at home and passively serve their husbands and children. In this novel, heroine Edna Pontellier follows her heart, moving out of her husband's house and choosing love and passion over cold tradition. She commits suicide at the end to avoid a life of emptiness. In the time before women's emancipation, the theme of a young woman's sexual and artistic growth sparked a national uproar. The St. Louis Republic roared that the book committed "unutterable crimes against polite society" and "should be labeled `poison.'" Scores of critics joined in, warning mothers not to let their daughters read it, and Mrs. Chopin--with grim humor--wrote in her own defense, "I never dreamed of Mrs. Pontellier making such a mess of things and working out her own damnation as she did. If I had had the slightest intimation of such a thing I would have excluded her from the company. But when I found out what she was up to, the play was half over and it was then too late." Recent critics--like our reviewer--have been much kinder to The Awakening, one calling it "probably as near to a Madame Bovary as the period produced." But the contemporary criticism, though making the book famous, struck--as one of her defenders put it--"deep at the author's heart, even killing her desire to write." .
3.
There are many forms of oppression in " The Story of An Hour" not only does Louis Mallard suffer in her mental and physical conditions , but she also poses a threat.
to herself , as her sister Josephine warns. The danger is particularly noticeable , since all of the action. Everything is orchestrated to save her from any sudden distress. In the end , the equilibrium of her situation which survives.
