The Awakening opens
in the late 1800s in Grand Isle, a summer
holiday resort popular with the wealthy inhabitants of nearby New
Orleans. Edna Pontellier is vacationing with her husband, Léonce,
and their two sons at the cottages of Madame Lebrun, which house
affluent Creoles from the French Quarter. Léonce is kind and loving
but preoccupied with his work. His frequent business-related absences
mar his domestic life with Edna. Consequently, Edna spends most
of her time with her friend Adèle Ratignolle, a married Creole who
epitomizes womanly elegance and charm. Through her relationship
with Adèle, Edna learns a great deal about freedom of expression. Because
Creole women were expected and assumed to be chaste, they could
behave in a forthright and unreserved manner. Exposure to such openness
liberates Edna from her previously prudish behavior and repressed
emotions and desires.
Edna’s relationship with Adèle begins Edna’s process of
“awakening” and self-discovery, which constitutes the focus of the
book. The process accelerates as Edna comes to know Robert Lebrun,
the elder, single son of Madame Lebrun. Robert is known among the Grand
Isle vacationers as a man who chooses one woman each year—often
a married woman—to whom he then plays “attendant” all summer long.
This summer, he devotes himself to Edna, and the two spend their
days together lounging and talking by the shore. Adèle Ratignolle
often accompanies them.
At first, the relationship between Robert and Edna is
innocent. They mostly bathe in the sea or engage in idle talk. As
the summer progresses, however, Edna and Robert grow closer, and
Robert’s affections and attention inspire in Edna several internal
revelations. She feels more alive than ever before, and she starts
to paint again as she did in her youth. She also learns to swim
and becomes aware of her independence and sexuality. Edna and Robert
never openly discuss their love for one another, but the time they
spend alone together kindles memories in Edna of the dreams and
desires of her youth. She becomes inexplicably depressed at night
with her husband and profoundly joyful during her moments of freedom, whether
alone or with Robert. Recognizing how intense the relationship between
him and Edna has become, Robert honorably removes himself from Grand
Isle to avoid consummating his forbidden love. Edna returns to New
Orleans a changed woman.
Back in New Orleans, Edna actively pursues her painting
and ignores all of her social responsibilities. Worried about the
changing attitude and increasing disobedience of his wife, Léonce
seeks the guidance of the family physician, Doctor Mandelet. A wise
and enlightened man, Doctor Mandelet suspects that Edna’s transformation
is the result of an affair, but he hides his suspicions from Léonce.
Instead, Doctor Mandelet suggests that Léonce let Edna’s defiance
run its course, since attempts to control her would only fuel her
rebellion. Léonce heeds the doctor’s advice, allowing Edna to remain
home alone while he is away on business. With her husband gone and
her children away as well, Edna wholly rejects her former lifestyle.
She moves into a home of her own and declares herself independent—the
possession of no one. Her love for Robert still intense, Edna pursues
an affair with the town seducer, Alcée Arobin, who is able to satisfy
her sexual needs. Never emotionally attached to Arobin, Edna maintains
control throughout their affair, satisfying her animalistic urges
but retaining her freedom from male domination.
At this point, the self-sufficient and unconventional
old pianist Mademoiselle Reisz adopts Edna as a sort of protégé,
warning Edna of the sacrifices required of an artist. Edna is moved
by Mademoiselle Reisz’s piano playing and visits her often. She
is also eager to read the letters from abroad that Robert sends
the woman. A woman who devotes her life entirely to her art, Mademoiselle
serves as an inspiration and model to Edna, who continues her process
of awakening and independence. Mademoiselle Reisz is the only person
who knows of Robert and Edna’s secret love for one another and she
encourages Edna to admit to, and act upon, her feelings.
Unable to stay away, Robert returns to New Orleans, finally expressing
openly his feelings for Edna. He admits his love but reminds her
that they cannot possibly be together, since she is the wife of
another man. Edna explains to him her newly established independence,
denying the rights of her husband over her and explaining how she
and Robert can live together happily, ignoring everything extraneous
to their relationship. But despite his love for Edna, Robert feels
unable to enter into the adulterous affair.
When Adèle undergoes a difficult and dangerous childbirth, Edna
leaves Robert’s arms to go to her friend. She pleads with him to wait
for her return. From the time she spends with Edna, Adèle senses
that Edna is becoming increasingly distant, and she understands
that Edna’s relationship with Robert has intensified. She reminds
Edna to think of her children and advocates the socially acceptable
lifestyle Edna abandoned so long ago. Doctor Mandelet, while walking
Edna home from Adèle’s, urges her to come see him because he is
worried about the outcome of her passionate but confused actions.
Already reeling under the weight of Adèle’s admonition, Edna begins
to perceive herself as having acted selfishly.
Edna returns to her house to find Robert gone,
a note of farewell left in his place. Robert’s inability to escape
the ties of society now prompts Edna’s most devastating awakening.
Haunted by thoughts of her children and realizing that she would
have eventually found even Robert unable to fulfill her desires
and dreams, Edna feels an overwhelming sense of solitude. Alone
in a world in which she has found no feeling of belonging, she can find
only one answer to the inescapable and heartbreaking limitations
of society. She returns to Grand Isle, the site of her first moments
of emotional, sexual, and intellectual awareness, and, in a final
escape, gives herself to the sea. As she swims through the soft,
embracing water, she thinks about her freedom from her husband and
children, as well as Robert’s failure to understand her, Doctor
Mandelet’s words of wisdom, and Mademoiselle Reisz’s courage. The
text leaves open the question of whether the suicide constitutes
a cowardly surrender or a liberating triumph.
