The Awakening - Kate Chopin
“She liked the dabbling. She felt in it
satisfaction of a kind which no other employment afforded her.” (Pg 21)
“But the beginning of things, of a world
especially, is necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly
disturbing.”
(Pg 25)
“At a very early period she had apprehended
instinctively the dual life – that outward existence which conforms, the inward
life which questions.” (Pg 27)
“You should have warned me against taking
myself seriously. Your advice might then have carried some weight, and given me
subject for some reflection.” (Pg 40)
“I wonder if any night on earth will ever
again be like this one. It is like a night in a dream. The people about me are
like some uncanny, half-human beings. There must be spirits abroad tonight.”
(Pg 55)
“No multitude of words could have been more
significant than those moments of silence.” (Pg 57)
“She could only realize that she herself –
her present self – was in some way different from the other self. That she was
seeing with different eyes and making the acquaintance of new conditions in
herself that colored and changed her environment, she did not yet suspect.” (Pg
77)
“She felt that she could not give too much
time to a diversion which afforded her the only pleasurable moments that she knew.”
(Pg 87)
“I would give up the unessential; I would
give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give
myself. I can’t make it more clear; its only something which I am beginning to
comprehend, which is revealing itself to me.” (Pg 90)
“The way to become rich is to make money, not
to save it.” (Pg 101)
“It was not that she dwelt upon details of
their acquaintance, or recalled in any special or peculiar way his personality;
it was his being, his existence, which dominated her thought, fading sometimes
as if it would melt into the mist of the forgotten, reviving again with an
intensity which filled her with an incomprehensible longing.” (Pg 103)
“He could not see that she was becoming
herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a
garment with which to appear before the world.” (Pg 109)
“A letter concerns no one but the person who
writes it and the one to whom it is written.” (Pg 119)
“She says a wedding is one of the most
lamentable spectacles on earth.” (Pg 126)
“I leave such ventures to you younger men
with the fever of life still in your blood” (Pg 127)
“He did not want the secets of other lives
thrust upon him.” (Pg 134)
“After all, it was no great matter to have
one’s hand kissed.” (Pg 149)
“Conditions would some way adjust themselves,
she felt; but whatever came, she had resolved never again to belong to another
than herself.” (Pg 152)
“If I were young and in love with a man, it
seems to me he would have to be some grand
espirit, a man with lofty aims and ability to reach them; one who stood
high enough to attract the notice of his fellow-men. It seems to me if I were
young and in love I should never deem a man of ordinary caliber worthy of my
devotion.” (Pg 154-155)
“Do you suppose a woman knows why she loves?
Does she select? Does she way to herself, ‘Go to! Here is a distinguished
statesman with presidential possibilities; I shall proceed to fall in love with
him!’” (Pg 155)
“One of these days, I’m going to pull myself
together for a while and thing – try to determine what character of a woman I
am, for, candidly, I don’t know. By all the codes which I am acquainted with, I
am a devilishly wicked specimen of the sex. But some way I can’t convince
myself that I am. I must think about it.” (Pg 157)
“The bird that would soar above the level
plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a saf spectacle
to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.” (Pg 158)
“Oh! To be able to paint in color rather than
in words!” (Pg 172)
“I’ve been working like a machine, and
feeling like a lost soul.” (Pg 191)
“There are some people who leave impressions
not so lasting as the imprint of an oar upon the water.” (Pg 194)
“You know that I only live when I am near
you.” (Pg 197)
“I suppose this is what you would call
unwomanly; but I have got into a habit of expressing myself. It doesn’t matter
to me, and you may think me unwomanly if you like.” (Pg 203)
“Nature takes no account of moral
consequences or arbitrary conditions which we create, and which we feel obliged
to maintain at any cost.” (Pg 213)
“Perhaps it is better to wake up after all,
even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life.” (Pg
213)
“The artist must possess the courageous soul
that dares and defies.” (Pg 221)
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