The Awakening

Edna finds herself constantly missing Robert and thinking about him. It seems to Edna that Robert’s absence has taken “the brightness, the color, the meaning out of everything” (117). Edna regularly pays visits to Robert’s mother, and they spend their days talking and looking at photos in the family albums. One day, Madame Lebrun hands Edna a letter from Robert, which he wrote to his mother before leaving New Orleans for Mexico. Edna is upset that Robert, having a chance to send a letter, wrote to his mother and not to her. It doesn’t surprise anyone, including Léonce, that Edna misses Robert. When her husband mentions that he ran into Robert in New Orleans, Edna is determined to get as much information about this encounter as possible.

Edna has had to keep her new-found feelings deep inside of her. It was not the first time in her life that she had thoughts and emotions “which never voiced themselves” (121). She tries to convey to Adèle something that has been on her mind for a while, telling her: “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” (122). Adèle can’t grasp what Edna means by those words, since in her view, giving up one’s life for one’s children is the ultimate sacrifice.

When the summer is over and Grand Isle visitors are about to leave, Mademoiselle Reisz approaches Adèle on the beach and asks how she feels about Robert’s absence. The two women have a conversation; Mademoiselle Reisz tells Edna that Madame Lebrun’s other son, Victor, is her favorite, even though everyone else finds him rude and audacious. She reveals to Edna that the two brothers even had a fight over a Spanish girl named Mariequita. Edna becomes upset as she realizes that this is the same girl Robert was talking to on the boat to Chênière. Mademoiselle Reisz does not notice that her words have distressed Edna; she gives Edna her address in New Orleans and tells her to visit.

The Pontelliers own a beautiful home on Esplanade Street in New Orleans, and Léonce takes great pride in it. He enjoys walking around it, looking at its various paintings, statues, and other household goods. For the past six years, ever since Edna got married, she has kept her tradition of having a reception day—a designated day each week when she would receive visitors. On this day, Edna usually wore a beautiful reception gown and did not leave a house waiting for her guests.

A few weeks after returning from Grand Isle, when Edna and Léonce are having dinner, Léonce notices that Edna is wearing a simple dress and not her festive reception clothes. He asks about Edna’s day and she responds that she was away all day and did not wait for her guests. Although Léonce is surprised, he hopes she had instructed the servants how they should explain her absence to their visitors. After hearing that Edna did not leave an excuse because she did not have one, and merely “felt like going out” (130), Léonce grows furious. He warns her that if she continues to be so negligent in the way she interacts with her guests, this might deteriorate his business relations with the husbands of her visitors. Refusing to finish his meal, Léonce leaves the table and decides to eat his dinner at the club. Edna is not surprised, since recently Léonce has developed a habit of spending his evenings at the club whenever this happened. Edna used to become very upset; however, this time she does not leave the table until she finishes her meal, and only then goes to her room. There, she hurls her wedding band on the floor and tramples it. Edna sees that she cannot damage the ring this way, but she still feels a strong desire to destroy something. Finally, she picks up a glass vase and shatters it, because “the crash and clatter were what she wanted to hear” (135).

The following morning, Edna declines Léonce’s request that she meet him in town to look at some new fixtures for the library, reproaching him for spending money instead of saving it. After he leaves for work, she tries to work on some of her sketches, but soon sees that she is not in the mood for drawing. Instead, she decides to visit Adèle, as the friendship between the two women has grown even more intimate since their return from Grand Isle. Edna finds Adèle at home, folding laundry, and shares with Adèle her plans to take drawing lessons. Edna hands Adèle her portfolio and hopes to hear compliments on her drawings. Edna also gives a few of her paintings to Adèle as a gift. Having decided to stay for dinner, Edna watches the Ratignolles and concludes that “if ever the fusion of two human beings into one has been accomplished on this sphere it was surely in their union” (144). Although Adèle and her husband seem to be very happy together, Edna understands that this domestic bliss is not what she wants in life. Moreover, Edna thinks that Adèle’s life is merely a “colorless existence which never uplifted its possessor beyond the region of blind contentment” (145).

Edna has entirely neglected her practice of staying home to receive visitors on Tuesday. She does not visit other people, either. Léonce, disappointed with Edna because of her refusal to submit to his demands, scolds her for spending all of her time painting, instead of caring for the “comfort of her family” (147). He uses Adèle as an example of a wife who never allows her passion for music to become a priority over her domestic duties. Sometimes, Léonce wonders if Edna suffers from some mental illness, because “he could see plainly that she was not herself” (147). Edna spends her days painting and singing to herself the same song Robert sang that night on the boat. Her mood fluctuates drastically between inexplicable joy and intense sorrow.