“The Awakening” by Kate Chopin ♬ ♪ Symbol Analysis: Music Chapters I-X By Cole Oost, Lauren Case, Paul Ginter, and Mari Morlyan

The Properties of Music Art in general is a powerful way of expressing our deepest emotions and yearnings, but music, it seems, can communicate these feelings in a more direct and immediate form than many other types of art. Music can be interpreted in many distinct ways depending on an individual’s experiences in life or current mood. Consequently, our specific interpretation of a song helps us relate to and feel connected to other people. Moreover, there are countless different types and genres of music. Aside from being used as a form of expression, music at a more basic level is also a form of entertainment. In order to be great at playing music, one must either have natural talent and passion for this medium, or have many years of structured practice.

Music as a Symbol in “The Awakening” Throughout the first ten chapters of the novel, music is used as a symbol to represent two main ideas. -Firstly, Chopin incorporates music into the story in order to emphasize how Edna interprets the world and her society differently than those around her and how this leads her to feeling disconnected from her family and friends. -Secondly, music is employed to display Edna’s changing state of mind and how the values and compulsions that she has kept repressed inside her for so long are beginning to emerge. “A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her, -- the light which, showing the way, forbids it… In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her” (Chopin 24).

Music as Entertainment: The Farival Twins In the beginning of the story, as Mr. Pontellier reads the newspaper on his front porch, he hears “more noise than ever” which, among other things, is because “Two young girls, the Farival twins, were playing a duet from ‘Zampa’ upon the piano” (Chopin 10). Again, later in the novel, during an entertainment session on a Saturday night, “…the Farival twins were prevailed upon to play the piano. They were… always clad in the Virgin’s colors… they played a duet from ‘Zampa,’ and at the earnest solicitation of everyone present followed it with the overture to ‘The Poet and the Peasant,’” (Chopin 38) but when a parrot immediately protests, Chopin writes, “He was the only being present who possessed sufficient candor to admit that he was not listening to these gracious performances for the first time that summer” (38).

Analysis: The Farival Twins The Farival Twins are heard playing the piano multiple times throughout the first ten chapters of the novel, but the only two songs they ever rehearse are a duet from ‘Zampa’ and the overture to ‘The Poet and the Peasant,’ and judging from Edna’s reaction to these songs, they have likely played them many more times than are even mentioned in the story. This sort of structured and controlled way of playing music represents the emphasis on order and properness which was common during the Victorian era. In addition, the girls were dressed in the color’s of the Virgin which might also represent the importance that society of that time placed on purity and decency. Because the girls are playing the piano only to entertain the guests of the pensione, Edna does not connect very well to their music and its lack of emotion or passion, which parallels her separation from the strictness of her society.

Music as Entertainment: Adèle Ratignolle Like the twins, Madame Ratignolle also plays the piano during the Saturday night entertainment session as seen in the quote, “She played very well, keeping excellent waltz time… She was keeping up her music on account of the children, she said; because she and her husband both considered it a means of brightening the home and making it attractive” (Chopin 39). “Edna was what she herself called very fond of music. Musical strains, well rendered, had a way of evoking pictures in her mind. She sometimes liked to sit in the room of mornings when Madame Ratignolle played or practiced. One piece which that lady played Edna had entitled ‘Solitude.’ It was a short, plaintive, minor strain. The name of the piece was something else, but she called it ‘Solitude’” (Chopin 41).

Analysis: Adèle Ratignolle Similar to the Farival twins, Madame Ratignolle plays the piano purely to entertain. Adèle does not appreciate the melodies she creates because of their inspiring or passionate nature, she values them simply as a decoration to impress her guests. Although the song’s name is not actually called “Solitude,” Edna calls it this because she does not relate to this type of music which causes her to feel disconnected from her friend and the Victorian society. However, the images she imagines in her mind when she hears music played in such a fashion are never actually of her feeling lonely or depressed but instead are of other people in seemingly tranquil or peaceful situations. This suggests that Edna does not fear being alone when it is done by her own choice but that she does not care to be unwillingly excluded by others and by her society because of her independent and expressive nature.

Music as Expression: Mademoiselle Reisz In contrast to the other musician’s playing that evening, “The very first chords which Mademoiselle Reisz struck upon the piano sent a keen tremor down Mrs. Pontellier's spinal column. It was not the first time she had heard an artist at the piano. Perhaps it was the first time she was ready, perhaps the first time her being was tempered to take an impress of the abiding truth. She waited for the material pictures which she thought would gather and blaze before her imagination. She waited in vain. She saw no pictures of solitude, of hope, of longing, or of despair. But the very passions themselves were aroused within her soul, swaying it, lashing it, as the waves daily beat upon her splendid body. She trembled, she was choking, and the tears blinded her” (Chopin 41). Upon finishing, Reisz asks Mrs. Pontellier, “‘Well, how did you like my music?’ she asked. The young woman was unable to answer; she pressed the hand of the pianist convulsively. Mademoiselle Reisz perceived her agitation and even her tears. She patted her again upon the shoulder as she said: ‘You are the only one worth playing for. Those others? Bah!’” (Chopin 42).

Analysis: Mademoiselle Reisz While listening to Adèle Ratignolle play the piano, visions of tranquility and isolation invade Edna’s mind, but while listening to Mademoiselle Reisz play the piano, Edna is overcome with emotion in a way that leaves her completely awestruck and speechless. Although she still felt something while listening to Ratignolle, her emotions were locked inside her head like a dream, but Reisz, with her intense passion and love for the music she plays, coaxes a physical reaction out of Edna that she had never even experienced before, which demonstrates Mrs. Pontellier’s newly discovered shift in mentality as she begins allowing her deepest emotions to surface for others to see. The intense reaction that Edna has to Mademoiselle Reisz’ piano playing also serves to show how she is isolated from the other guests at the party as she is the only attendee who is truly moved by the music and not just entertained by it.

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