The Awakening

Robert and Edna sit on the steps and discuss people and the sights around them. Although each of them is talking mostly about themselves, they are both interested in what the other has to say. Robert, a handsome, nonchalant young man, is smoking a cigarette. He cannot afford to buy his own cigars, but has in his pocket a cigar that Mr. Pontellier had given to him earlier. With the intention to save it for later, he does not want to smoke it now. He confides in Edna that he is considering going to Mexico in the autumn, “to seek his fortune” (9). Currently, he works as a clerk in a mercantile house in New Orleans. He got the job because of his ability to speak not only English, but also some French and Spanish. This year, as per family tradition, he is spending his summer with his mother at Grand Isle. 

Edna, a beautiful and charming woman, is thinking back to her childhood: she shares with Robert her fond memories of growing up in the Kentucky countryside, on her father’s plantation. She reads a letter from her sister, who lives in the East and has recently gotten engaged. Robert is listening to Edna with interest, wondering what kind of relationship the sisters have, and what the father’s character is like, and how long ago they lost their mother.

After folding up the letter from her sister, Edna looks in the direction where Mr. Pontellier left from and says that most likely he is not coming back for dinner. As she leaves, Robert goes over to play croquet with the Pontellier children—the boys like him very much.

Mr. Pontellier comes back after playing billiards late at night. Although Edna is fast asleep, he wakes her up to share with her the news and gossip that he had heard during the day. He is disappointed that Edna does not show much interest in his words and responds with groggy half-answers. Léonce decides to go to his sons’ room, where it seems to him that Raoul has a fever. After telling Edna about it, he lights a cigar and sits near the door to smoke it. Mrs. Pontellier reassures him that Raoul was perfectly healthy when he went to bed, but Mr. Pontellier insists that she attend to him, criticizing Mrs. Pontellier for her “habitual neglect of the children” (12).

Mr. Pontellier points out to his wife that it is her responsibility to look after their children, since he is busy with work and making a living. Mrs. Pontellier springs out of bed and goes into another room to check on her son. When she returns, a few moments later, she refuses to answer any of her husband’s questions. Mr. Pontellier soon falls asleep but Mrs. Pontellier by that time is wide-awake. She begins to cry, first in their bed and then outside on the porch, where she sits listening to the sea and weeping. Mrs. Pontellier realizes that she has often felt miserable in her marriage, even though she could not always pinpoint a reason of her unhappiness, but her husband’s affection to their children has always been a source of comfort for her. This particular evening, however, Mrs. Pontellier is overwhelmed with “indescribable oppression” (14). She does not want to scold her husband or complain about her fate, she only wants to sit have “a good cry all to herself” (14). She stays on the porch until the mosquitoes force her back inside.

The next morning, Mr. Pontellier, having regained his composure, is preparing to depart for a week to the city, to do his business. Before he leaves, he gives Mrs. Pontellier half of the money he brought from Klein’s hotel the evening before, which makes her quite pleased, since she wants to use the money to buy a wedding gift for her sister, Janet. He then bids farewell to the people who have gathered to watch him leave. A few days later, from New Orleans, he sends Mrs. Pontellier a box full of exquisite treats. Since she is quite used to receiving such gifts when her husband is away, she readily shares the contents of the box with her friends. All women unanimously proclaim that Mr. Pontellier is the best husband in the world, but Mrs. Pontellier only comments that “she kn[ows] of none better” (17).

Mr. Pontellier cannot explain in what way exactly his wife is not fulfilling her duty toward their children. He feels that his wife is different from other women on Grand Isle, whom the narrator calls “mother-women [who] idolize[d] their children, worship[ped] their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals” (19). Mrs. Pontellier’s friend, Adèle Ratignolle, is one of those women. Madame Ratignolle has been married for seven years and has three children, and she is already beginning to think about the fourth one. She befriends Edna and the two often spend their days at Grand Isle going on walks and talking. She was with Mrs. Pontellier the afternoon of the day the box full of gifts from Mr. Pontellier arrived. The three of them—Madame Ratignolle, Mrs. Pontellier and Robert—are sitting outside, relaxing, eating the bonbons Mr. Pontellier has sent and talking about Mrs. Ratignolle’s sewing and the sweets.

Mrs. Pontellier often finds herself surprised by the topics that women on Grand Isle discuss. Since she is married to Mr. Pontellier, who is Creole, Mrs. Pontellier spends much of her time surrounded by Creole women; their unrestrained speech does not cease to surprise her. What sets the Creole women apart and what impresses Mrs. Pontellier the most is their lack of self-restraint in conversation. However, this does not call into question their righteousness, which seems to be innate. After spending some time with Creole women, Mrs. Pontellier comes to terms with the realization that they will keep surprising her with their openness at every turn.

Since the age of 15, each summer Robert chooses one woman at Grand Isle whom he courts. Sometimes it is a young girl or a widow, but often it is a married woman. That summer afternoon, Robert tells Edna of the summer when he was Madame Ratignolle’s attendant. Adèle jokes that back then, she was scared Mr. Ratignolle would get jealous. No one takes her comment seriously because it was taken for granted that a Creole wife would never compromise her faithfulness to her husband.

Robert’s intention to devote himself to Mrs. Pontellier for the summer does not seem surprising for the residents of Grand Isle. Nevertheless, it’s clear that he treats Edna differently. For instance, in her presence, he never speaks of love jokingly, like he used to do with other women of Grand Isle. Edna decides to draw a portrait of Adèle and Robert bears them company. He puts his head on Mrs. Pontellier’s arm, but she nudges him. When the drawing is finished, Adèle does not hide her disappointment because she thinks that the portrait does not resemble her; nevertheless, she is content with it. Mrs. Pontellier, however, is not satisfied, and destroys the drawing.

Mrs. Pontellier’s children and their nurse are approaching Edna. The nurse stays at some distance behind them—this is a rule she is required to observe. The children help Edna bring her painting equipment into the house and she rewards them with sweets. Madame Ratignolle acts like she is about to faint, and although Mrs. Pontellier helps her, she doesn’t believe that Adèle is truly sick. Feeling better, Madame Ratignolle returns to her guesthouse, and on her way there she meets her own three children and greets them warmly. Robert asks Edna to go for a swim together, but she refuses, saying that she is too exhausted. Yet Robert continues to ask her to join him, and she finally agrees.