Mr Pontellier worries about his wife’s health and her strange behaviour,Ĭonsulting the doctor about both. Sister’s wedding and has no thoughts about propriety or ‘what the world will say’ with regard To anybody for her actions, in other words, completely autonomous. She wants to feel a sense of being financially independent, not answerable Her family by now is meaningless andĭistant for her, her desire to fiercely possess her identity and be her own person being now She becomesĬareless, and disinterested with regard to domestic affairs, letting everything on the homeįront slide as it is no longer of any significance to her. Leaves in the middle of a badly cooked dinner to go out to the club to eat. Her husband complains about her lack of supervision of the servants, and he Tuesdays to receive her callers, as her husband accepts her to, but goes out just because she Keeping up appearances by observing the customs. She does not care about her wifely responsibilities or about But things can never be the same for Edna as she is a changed person, as a result of her The summer just like the flirtation, hasĬome to an end and Edna and her family return to their posh home on Esplanade Street, in the city. Once he’s gone, the truthĬonfronts Edna with further starkness and clarity. Knowing how to deal with it, flees to Mexico to ‘make money’ (we will discuss if he is anĮscapist, a coward or an honourable man, or all of the above). Robert realises the impossibility of the situation, and not This emotion is passionate and all consuming, leaving no Before they know it,īoth Edna and Robert begin to feel an attraction towards each other and an intensity ofĮmotion they perceive as unusual, unmanageable and somewhat threatening in the context of You will find out more about this in the section on Creole background). Talking, swimming, being together (and of course the Creole husband is never jealous, but She meets and spends a lot of time with Robert Lebrun, an unattached young bachelor, The family goes to Grand Isle for the summer where Her romantic urgings and physical longings have at this stage hardly beenĪrticulated and certainly not satisfied. When she was very young, not made with love or romance though he is a good man and aĬaring husband. The novel is about self-expression and a woman’s right to be herself,Įdna is locked in a typical marriage to Leonce Pontellier, a marriage of convenience made Through rebellion against the conventional role of being a wife and a mother and theĬonsequences thereof. It isĪbout her awakening to sexual consciousness, her discovery and assertion of this new ‘self’

Isle in Louisiana, a popular destination for wealthy Creole and French-descent families. Set in 1899, it follows Edna Pontellier as she vacations with her family on Grand The Awakening by Kate Chopin is a bildungsroman, or a novel of moral or intellectual

The awakening themes