Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Awakening

You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

110 reviews

zimmerlemon's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective

4.5

That was really I retesting to me! Honestly reminds me of Virginia Woolf even though the writing style is really different. Also vaguely yellow wallpaper-ish. Some really incredible moments/turns of phrase. I feel like I would definitely reread this and will be lowkey haunted by it lol.

Content Warnings

north_elliot's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book is okay for the most part, but in some places, the writing quality goes down. Certain parts are slightly confusing. Sometimes, the narrator goes out of character, but it's not too bad. Edna has some mental illness.

I'm not sure what Robert sees in her.

Also, there is a lack of details, especially at the abrupt end.

Edna's suicide is really pathetic

Content Warnings

eminent_reader's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

ccorliss's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective

5.0

hm …

the description of langor and ennui, of a painful longing, of the richness of items around her, of object’s decadence … of her deepest desires, desire she had not known before, of *female* desire … for something which is out of her reach; a life which is not to be hers … a freedom which does not exist in her own physical body … in her own tangible life … the oscillation of colorful euphoria, of exhilaration and joy and love in life, in independence, in this mental conception of her own *person-ness*, with the deep lulls of depression, that creeping magnitude of vast despair, of destitution at ownership of her each passing day …

and so i am left to dwell with the conclusion of this story.

has she succeeded in killing herself? what if she failed? i am inclined to hold out hope that she was not successful, that her naked body was found sputtering ashore, that some visceral human desire of another sort—for survival with no other thought above it—overcame her, and she comes back to life, in some new way.

the used copy i read from, the previous reader left the most rank annotations throughout that maybe made me reactively root for edna pontellier even more than maybe i would have without their dumb, judgmental notes. but i think that edna is a compelling character, regardless. you yearn to see her free enough in her life, enough to have had an option of another life, one where she can be “”mannish”” and like her father, perhaps without kids, perhaps with a man she truly lusted for and loved and was able to stay in love with, maybe have children with that man and still experience the joy she had with her kids toward the end of this story. i’m not blind to the suggestions at something between her and mademoiselle reisz. and perhaps that would be a door in a different world for edna. but i’m not that stuck on that possibility—a lesbian story would unfold if it were meant to unfold. rather, i am struck by the feeling that mademoiselle reisz is special because she understands edna like no one else has understood her before. and that this elemental understanding is something profound. perhaps she senses these lurking feelings edna possesses, or perhaps at times posses edna … and she knows of this love, lust, whatever it may be that is regardless deep and apparent in its attractive pull, between edna and robert. and so she understands this part of edna which no one else does; she sees edna in a more complete way, embracing her urges and whims for her personal expression and ability to embody freedom, for joy in her own person, to bring these rich feeling in to her own life.

and so i do not know that i like the ending per se, i mean, who could? but in the way i hope it goes beyond the last page, i am still drawn to how chopin writes of how this montage brings about the sensual feelings of freedom. the freedom of being a new born adult all over, baptized by the sun, embraced by the ocean’s endless bounty of salt water, to be brought in contact with a feeling of humanness that comes with her being naked before the sky. it is so sensual it is in some ways euphoric. but her numbness is haunting, and i hope, deeply, that the story we are left to continue off the page is one where she is brought to live a new kind of life, however hard or outcast, where she may live as she wishes, where she may feel free and be both excited by feeling, and at peace with being, alive.

Content Warnings

gabbygarcia's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Content Warnings

emrosch's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

It was okay. I think my expectations were too high. I liked the beginning and end, but the middle was really boring. Edna's development throughout the story was interesting.. although I personally thought it was too shallow. I would've wished for it to be discussed more or simply more prominent in the story itself.

Also not the biggest fan of Kate Chopin's writing style.

Content Warnings