Summary: The Awakening

In the late 1800s, at the live­ly sea­side retreat of Grand Isle, pop­u­lar among the afflu­ent from the near­by city of New Orleans, we encounter Edna Pon­tel­li­er vaca­tion­ing with her fam­i­ly. Edna’s spouse, Léonce, though atten­tive, is often engrossed in his work, leav­ing Edna in the com­pa­ny of her com­pan­ion, Adèle Ratig­nolle. Adèle, a wed­ded Cre­ole woman sym­bol­iz­ing fem­i­nin­i­ty and ele­gance, intro­duces Edna to a realm of unre­strict­ed expres­sion, expos­ing her to the lib­er­ty that comes with unre­served con­duct. The friend­ship between Edna and Adèle ini­ti­ates a voy­age of self-explo­ration that esca­lates when she encoun­ters Robert Lebrun, the bach­e­lor son of their host­ess. Robert is renowned for his sea­son­al devo­tion to a cho­sen woman, usu­al­ly mar­ried, and this sum­mer he picks Edna. Their ini­tial inno­cent com­pan­ion­ship evolves into a deep­er con­nec­tion, trig­ger­ing in Edna a renew­al of ener­gy and artis­tic inspi­ra­tion. Their unspo­ken sen­ti­ments for one anoth­er evoke mem­o­ries of Edna’s youth­ful ambi­tions, lead­ing to moments of pro­found hap­pi­ness and inex­plic­a­ble despon­den­cy. Acknowl­edg­ing their blos­som­ing close­ness, Robert dis­tances him­self to evade cross­ing for­bid­den bound­aries, leav­ing a trans­formed Edna to return to New Orleans.

Back in the urban cen­ter, Edna embraces her ardor for paint­ing while dis­re­gard­ing her soci­etal oblig­a­tions, alarm­ing her hus­band. Léonce, fol­low­ing the coun­sel of the fam­i­ly physi­cian, allows Edna’s rebel­lious phase to unfold. With her fam­i­ly absent, Edna rejects her for­mer way of life and strives for auton­o­my, even embark­ing on a pas­sion­ate affair with the local phi­lan­der­er, Alcée Arobin. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, the elder­ly pianist Made­moi­selle Reisz takes Edna under her guid­ance, fur­ther fuel­ing Edna’s devel­op­ment and inde­pen­dence. Robert’s abrupt reap­pear­ance and dec­la­ra­tion of love for Edna lead to a clash with soci­etal norms, as Edna spurns her hus­band’s dom­i­nance and pro­pos­es a future with Robert, though he grap­ples with the notion of an extra­mar­i­tal liaison.

When Edna is sum­moned to aid Adèle dur­ing a com­pli­cat­ed child­birth, she departs, urg­ing Robert to wait for her, but is cau­tioned by Adèle regard­ing her uncon­ven­tion­al choic­es. Return­ing home to find Robert absent, Edna expe­ri­ences iso­la­tion and pon­ders the moral­i­ty of her deeds. Over­whelmed by the soci­etal con­straints and the real­iza­tion of her unful­filled long­ings, Edna retreats to Grand Isle, sur­ren­der­ing her­self to the sea as a final act of lib­er­a­tion. The nar­ra­tive con­cludes in an ambigu­ous tone, leav­ing uncer­tain whether Edna’s deci­sion to end her life is an act of fear or a vic­to­ri­ous escape.

Chapter 1

The tale com­mences in Grand Isle, a vaca­tion des­ti­na­tion for afflu­ent French Cre­oles from New Orleans. Léonce Pon­tel­li­er, a pros­per­ous mer­chant from New Orleans in his for­ties, stands out­side the pri­ma­ry guest res­i­dence perus­ing his news­pa­per. The guest­house host­ess, Madame Lebrun’s pet birds, a par­rot, and a mock­ing­bird, cre­ate a com­mo­tion. Léonce relo­cates to his rent­ed dwelling to evade the birds’ clam­or. Glanc­ing back at the main edi­fice, he observes the noise has height­ened: the Fari­val twins per­form on the piano, Madame Lebrun gives instruc­tions to ser­vants, and a woman clad in dark attire walks with her rosary. His young­sters play under the guid­ance of their quadroon nurse near the water-oaks. While savor­ing a cig­ar, Léonce wit­ness­es his wife, Edna, approach­ing from the shore along­side Robert Lebrun, Mrs. Lebrun’s off­spring. Léonce reproach­es Edna for her sun­burn and heed­less swim­ming dur­ing the mid­day heat. After return­ing Edna her rings, which he had been hold­ing, he invites Robert to a game of bil­liards at Klein’s hotel. Robert opts to stay with Edna, declin­ing the invi­ta­tion, as Léonce departs.

Chapter 2

Robert, a youth­ful and untrou­bled indi­vid­ual, and Edna, an enchant­i­ng and cap­ti­vat­ing lady, par­take in con­tin­u­al dia­logue. They exchange views on the sur­round­ing scenery and their acquain­tances. Robert divulges his inten­tion to jour­ney to Mex­i­co dur­ing the sum­mer in pur­suit of bet­ter for­tunes. Mean­while, Edna rem­i­nisces about her youth spent in the Ken­tucky blue­grass region and men­tions her sis­ter’s upcom­ing marriage.

Chapter 3

Return­ing from his late-night bil­liards, Léonce is in a buoy­ant mood. He prods Edna to share his club gos­sip, but her lack­lus­ter respons­es dis­ap­point him. Sus­pect­ing their son Raoul might be unwell, he chides Edna for her ‘habit­u­al neglect of the chil­dren.’ Despite her assur­ance that Raoul was fine before bed­time, he urges her to check on him. After a brief vis­it to their sons’ cham­ber, Edna returns to bed, dis­re­gard­ing fur­ther inquiries from Léonce. She remains awake long after her hus­band suc­cumbs to slum­ber, sit­ting out­doors and shed­ding silent tears to the melody of the ocean. Despite encoun­ter­ing moments of unex­plained melan­choly in the past, her hus­band’s affec­tion and kind­ness have always pro­vid­ed solace. How­ev­er, tonight, an unfa­mil­iar sen­sa­tion of despair envelops her, keep­ing her out­side until insects dri­ve her indoors. In the morn­ing, Léonce departs for a week of busi­ness. Upon his depar­ture, he hands Edna some mon­ey and bids farewell to a small crowd gath­ered to see him off. He dis­patch­es Edna a box of can­dies from New Orleans, which she shares with her acquain­tances. Prais­es for Léonce as the exem­plary hus­band abound, and under their scruti­ny, Edna admits ‘she knows of none better.’

Chapter 4

Léonce per­ceives a marked dis­tinc­tive­ness in Edna’s approach towards their sons com­pared to the oth­er women of Grand Isle. Unlike these ‘moth­er-women,’ Edna refus­es to com­pro­mise her indi­vid­u­al­i­ty to idol­ize her chil­dren or ven­er­ate her spouse. Adèle Ratig­nolle, a com­rade of Edna and the arche­type of a moth­er-woman, presents a stark con­trast. At Grand Isle, Adèle, Edna, and Robert engage in casu­al ban­ter while indulging in the con­fec­tions sent by Léonce. Con­ver­sa­tions span from Adèle’s needle­work and the choco­lates to child­birth, leav­ing Edna astound­ed. Edna’s union with Léonce, a Cre­ole elit­ist, immers­es her in the com­pa­ny of Cre­ole women, yet she strug­gles to con­form to their cus­toms. Their can­did dis­cus­sions sharply jux­ta­pose with con­ven­tion­al Amer­i­can pro­pri­ety. How­ev­er, these females pos­sess an uplift­ing puri­ty that upholds their respectability.

Chapter 5

Since his teenage years, Robert has habit­u­al­ly devot­ed his sum­mers to a sin­gle woman. Seat­ed by the sea with Adèle and Edna, he recounts anec­dotes of his past ded­i­ca­tion to Adèle. Adèle jest­ing­ly remarks that she used to fret over her spouse’s jeal­ousy, an absurd notion con­sid­er­ing that Cre­ole hus­bands are reput­ed­ly not jeal­ous. She con­fess­es that she nev­er took Robert’s pro­fes­sion of love seri­ous­ly. It comes as no sur­prise when Robert choos­es to ded­i­cate his sum­mer to Edna. While accus­tomed to shift­ing affec­tions sea­son­al­ly, his demeanor towards Edna is unique. When alone, he refrains from express­ing affec­tion in the light-heart­ed, semi-joc­u­lar man­ner he used with Adèle. While Edna sketch­es Adèle, Robert observes, lean­ing on Edna’s arm until she nudges him away. Adèle does not per­ceive the same jest­ing tone in their exchanges as Robert pre­vi­ous­ly employed with her com­plet­ed draw­ing resem­bles her, how­ev­er, she is grate­ful despite this fact. Edna, on the oth­er hand, is dis­sat­is­fied and destroys the art­work. As the off­spring of Edna arrive, their care­tak­er trails behind. They aid their moth­er with her artis­tic mate­ri­als and are gift­ed with con­fec­tioner­ies. Adèle momen­tar­i­ly los­es con­scious­ness, an occur­rence Edna sus­pects might have been planned. Upon recov­er­ing, Adèle ele­gant­ly returns to her own abode, warm­ly wel­com­ing her three chil­dren en route. Robert pro­pos­es a swim which Edna at first refus­es due to weari­ness. Yet, even­tu­al­ly, she yields to his per­sis­tent requests and they head towards the shore, with Robert sit­u­at­ing her straw hat on her head.

Chapter 6

Edna is uncer­tain about her ini­tial rejec­tion of Robert’s sug­ges­tion to swim despite desir­ing to join him at the sea­side. A pecu­liar radi­ance with­in her steers her towards “dreams,” “con­tem­pla­tion,” and the “shad­owy tor­ment” that caused her tears on the night Léonce returned from the club. She is grad­u­al­ly begin­ning to view her­self as an indi­vid­ual inter­twined with the world out­side her imme­di­ate envi­ron­ment, and the sound of the sea directs her spir­it towards “intro­spec­tive mus­ing” and a dis­qui­et­ing, unfa­mil­iar depth of insight.

Chapter 7

Edna usu­al­ly keeps her per­son­al reflec­tions to her­self and is not prone to shar­ing them. From a young age, she felt torn between her out­ward per­sona and her inquis­i­tive inner self. How­ev­er, her bond with the can­did and sin­cere Adèle at Grand Isle begins to dis­man­tle her defens­es. They amble towards the sea­side, a strik­ing duo. Edna, clad in sim­ple sum­mer attire, pos­sess­es a slim fig­ure and an enig­mat­ic aura, while Adèle, a time­less beau­ty, is garbed more ornate­ly to shield her skin from the sun. They set­tle on Edna’s bathing veran­da, with Edna loos­en­ing her attire for com­fort. Mean­while, the woman dressed in black is engrossed in her reli­gious text on anoth­er veran­da and two lovers are embrac­ing under an emp­ty children’s canopy. Adèle, observ­ing Edna’s silent con­tem­pla­tion, inquires about her thoughts. Edna reveals that the ocean evokes mem­o­ries of a child­hood day in Ken­tucky when she pre­tend­ed to swim across a vast mead­ow, a wel­comed escape from tedious Sun­day devo­tions. Cur­rent­ly, she adheres to reli­gious rit­u­als out of habit but con­fess­es that she often feels as if she’s reliv­ing that sum­mer day in the mead­ow – wan­der­ing aim­less­ly with­out direc­tion. Adèle’s gen­tle touch catch­es Edna off guard, as she is still unac­cus­tomed to the Cre­oles’ casu­al dis­plays of affec­tion. This prompts Edna to rem­i­nisce about her past rela­tion­ships with oth­er girls. She was dis­tant from her sis­ters and most of her com­pan­ions were as reserved as she. Her clos­est friend was a girl whose intel­lect she admired and strived to imi­tate. Edna’s most intense con­nec­tions were her unrec­i­p­ro­cat­ed infat­u­a­tions with men. She was cap­ti­vat­ed by her now-hus­band Léonce and was charmed by his gen­uine courtship. When her fam­i­ly opposed Léonce’s Catholic faith, she found the prospect of their union even more appeal­ing. Fur­ther­more, she con­sid­ered mar­riage a rem­e­dy for her unat­tain­able roman­tic fan­tasies, an anchor to soci­etal con­ven­tions. Hence, she found con­tent­ment in the absence of fer­vor in their rela­tion­ship. Her thoughts shift to her rela­tion­ship with her chil­dren. She admits to being incon­sis­tent and impul­sive in her affec­tion for them and expe­ri­ences a sense of relief when they depart to vis­it rel­a­tives. She acknowl­edges that she was ill-pre­pared for moth­er­hood. She con­fides some of these sen­ti­ments to Adèle, find­ing the open­ness refresh­ing. Their inti­mate moment is inter­rupt­ed by Robert and their chil­dren. While Adèle and Robert depart togeth­er, Edna spends time with the children.

Chapter 8

Fol­low­ing Edna’s admis­sion of past infat­u­a­tions, Adèle express­es con­cern that Edna might mis­in­ter­pret Robert’s flir­ta­tions as some­thing more pro­found and advis­es him to desist. Offend­ed, Robert impul­sive­ly declares his wish for Edna to take his affec­tions seri­ous­ly, as he is weary of the Cre­ole women who view him as a pass­ing diver­sion. Adèle warns him that pur­su­ing mar­ried women seri­ous­ly would tar­nish his rep­u­ta­tion as a respectable gen­tle­man. Robert begins to ratio­nal­ize to Adèle the allure of a gen­uine affair, but recon­sid­ers. Instead, he shifts the dis­cus­sion to tales of the noto­ri­ous phi­lan­der­er, Alcée Arobin, until Adèle’s con­cern for Edna appears to have fad­ed. Adèle retires for the night, while Robert, after a brief search for Edna on the shore, relax­es with his moth­er at her cot­tage. They con­verse about Robert’s imper­ti­nent broth­er Vic­tor and the lat­est gos­sip regard­ing Mon­tel, Madame Lebrun’s per­sis­tent admirer.

Chapter 9

Weeks after Adèle’s con­ver­sa­tion with Robert, Madame Lebrun and her ten­ants host a soirée for their week­end guests. The Fari­val twins, four­teen-year-olds des­tined for the nun­nery, per­form a piano duet. Adèle takes a turn at the piano, enter­tain­ing the danc­ing guests. Sub­se­quent­ly, Robert per­suades the can­tan­ker­ous Made­moi­selle Reisz to play the piano for Edna. Despite typ­i­cal­ly envis­ag­ing vary­ing emo­tions while lis­ten­ing to Adèle play her diverse com­po­si­tions, this time Edna feels the sen­ti­ments rather than visu­al­iz­ing them in her mind’s eye. Made­moi­selle Reisz’s per­for­mance moves Edna to tears. Upon fin­ish­ing her piece, Made­moi­selle Reisz acknowl­edges Edna’s sin­cere reac­tion, dub­bing her the sole gen­uine audi­ence mem­ber present. The rest of the atten­dees also seem to have appre­ci­at­ed the music. Robert then pro­pos­es they all take a late-night dip.

Chapter 10

Return­ing from a gath­er­ing, Edna is bewil­dered by Robert’s abrupt aloof­ness. His devo­tion appears to fol­low a cycle; he retreats, then com­pen­sates upon his return. They reach the beach, where every­one, exclud­ing Edna, plunges into the water. Being inex­pe­ri­enced in swim­ming, she hes­i­tates ini­tial­ly. How­ev­er, an unfore­seen surge of empow­er­ment urges her to wade into the water, caus­ing a rip­ple of aston­ish­ment among the spec­ta­tors. For the first time, Edna sens­es agency as she defies soci­etal norms and swims far­ther than any oth­er woman has before. She reproach­es her­self for not dis­cov­er­ing the joy of swim­ming soon­er. How­ev­er, the exhil­a­ra­tion soon turns to trep­i­da­tion as she real­izes the dis­tance she has cov­ered and doubts her abil­i­ty to return. Upon reach­ing the shore, she hasti­ly dress­es and choos­es to walk home alone, ignor­ing entreaties from her hus­band and oth­ers to stay. Robert fol­lows her, prompt­ing Edna to ques­tion his con­cern for her safe­ty. He assures her he knew she was­n’t fear­ful, leav­ing the true rea­son for his pur­suit unspo­ken. Over­whelmed, Edna strug­gles to artic­u­late the emo­tion­al whirl­wind the evening has stirred in her. Robert shares a fable about a spir­it select­ing a mor­tal com­pan­ion, sub­tly insin­u­at­ing that he com­pre­hends her sen­ti­ments, though Edna dis­miss­es it as a jest. Upon reach­ing home, Edna is fatigued and set­tles into a ham­mock. Robert remains with her, both silent until her hus­band returns. The nar­ra­tor observes that their silence speaks vol­umes about the awak­en­ing of their desires. Robert departs as the swim­mers come back.

Chapter 11

Léonce arrives and insists that Edna should retire for the night. Nonethe­less, Edna insists on remain­ing out­side in the ham­mock, much to her hus­band’s cha­grin. This defi­ance is nov­el to her always adher­ing to his desires unques­tion­ing­ly before. Edna reflects on this trans­for­ma­tion with­in her­self and pon­ders how she used to be so obe­di­ent in the past. Mean­while, Léonce spends the night on the veran­da, smok­ing and sip­ping wine until the ear­ly hours of the morn­ing. He offers Edna wine on mul­ti­ple occa­sions, but she con­sis­tent­ly declines. Even­tu­al­ly, fatigue over­takes Edna, and she retreats indoors. She inquires of Léonce if he will join her, to which he replies that he will, once he fin­ish­es his cigar.

Chapter 12

After a rest­less night’s slum­ber, Edna wakes while most of Grand Isle is still asleep. As some indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing the cou­ple and the mys­te­ri­ous lady in black, head towards the dock for the boat to Chênière Cam­i­nada’s Sun­day mass, Edna unchar­ac­ter­is­ti­cal­ly seeks out Robert’s com­pan­ion­ship. She per­suades one of Mrs. Lebrun’s atten­dants to wake him, and sur­pris­ing­ly, nei­ther of them deems this request unusu­al. On the boat, Robert engages briefly in con­ver­sa­tion with Mariequi­ta, a spir­it­ed, curi­ous Span­ish maid­en. He then shifts his atten­tion to Edna, jest­ing­ly dis­cussing their future explo­rations on the island and the rich­es they will squan­der. Edna feels lib­er­at­ed, as if the chains bind­ing her to Grand Isle have been shat­tered, leav­ing her free to pur­sue her own desires.

Chapter 13

Feel­ing fatigued and unset­tled dur­ing the church ser­vice, Edna exits, accom­pa­nied by Robert. He escorts her to Madame Antoine’s res­i­dence on the Chênière for some repose. Once seclud­ed in the small cham­ber, Edna par­tial­ly dis­robes and fresh­ens up. Reclin­ing in bed, she admires the strength and del­i­ca­cy of her arms before drift­ing off to sleep. Upon awak­en­ing refreshed, she finds Robert in the gar­den. Sens­ing as though she had slept for an extend­ed dura­tion, she humor­ous­ly sug­gests that they are the final rem­nants of their kind. After rel­ish­ing a meal pre­pared by Robert, they join Madame Antoine under a tree upon her return. They spend the evening lis­ten­ing to her anec­dotes until dusk when they must depart.

Chapter 14

Edna returns and dis­cov­ers from Adèle about her younger son, Eti­en­ne’s reluc­tance to slum­ber. She suc­cess­ful­ly soothes him and puts him to rest. Adèle divulges that Léonce was quite con­cerned about Edna’s absence from the Chênière after mass. How­ev­er, upon learn­ing that she was rest­ing at Madame Antoine’s place and would be accom­pa­nied home by Madame Antoine’s son, Léonce departs for his respon­si­bil­i­ties at the club. Adèle departs for her abode, not desir­ing to leave her spouse alone. Robert and Edna tuck Eti­enne into bed, and after spend­ing the entire day in each oth­er’s com­pa­ny, Robert bids good­night and departs. Al…remains for a repast. Upon her depar­ture, Edna is struck by a wave of sad­ness as she rec­og­nizes that the cozy domes­tic hap­pi­ness Adèle enjoys with the Ratig­nolles is some­thing she deems unat­trac­tive. Adèle’s “monot­o­nous exis­tence” and “uncrit­i­cal sat­is­fac­tion” appear piti­ful to her.

Chapter 19

Edna no longer con­forms to the cus­tom of enter­tain­ing guests on Tues­days. Her spouse, Léonce, chides her for paint­ing instead of tend­ing to her fam­i­ly’s neces­si­ties. He pro­pos­es that she imi­tate Adèle, who nev­er lets her fond­ness for music dis­rupt her house­hold duties. He even mus­es if Edna might be men­tal­ly unbal­anced. Nev­er­the­less, he leaves her be, immersed in paint­ing and singing Robert’s melody as she day­dreams about the ocean and Grand Isle. Edna’s feel­ings fluc­tu­ate sig­nif­i­cant­ly each day, alter­nat­ing between intense joy and pro­found sorrow.

Chapter 20

Amid her despon­den­cy, Edna seeks com­fort in Made­moi­selle Reisz’s piano melodies. Upon dis­cov­er­ing Reisz’s relo­ca­tion, she con­sults Madame Lebrun for the lat­est infor­ma­tion. Vic­tor, Robert’s sib­ling, enter­tains Edna while wait­ing for his moth­er with anec­dotes of his recent escapades. The scant atten­tion from vis­i­tors is lament­ed by Madame Lebrun upon her arrival, who also shares the updates from Robert’s cor­re­spon­dences from Mex­i­co. Dis­ap­point­ment envelops Edna upon real­iz­ing Robert depart­ed with­out a per­son­al mes­sage for her. Madame Lebrun dis­clos­es Reisz’s new where­abouts, and Vic­tor escorts Edna out. After her depar­ture, the Lebruns exchange opin­ions about her, with Vic­tor not­ing, “In some man­ner, she doesn’t appear like the same woman.”

Chapter 21

Made­moi­selle Reisz is elat­ed and sur­prised to find Edna at her thresh­old. She is amused by Edna’s can­did uncer­tain­ty about her fond­ness. Infor­mal­ly, Made­moi­selle men­tions a mis­sive she received from Robert in Mex­i­co, pre­dom­i­nant­ly dis­cussing Edna. Despite Edna’s plea to peruse the let­ter, Made­moi­selle declines but alludes that Robert had request­ed her to per­form for Edna “that Impromp­tu of Chopin’s.” Edna per­sists in urg­ing her to play the melody and reveal the let­ter. Intrigued, Made­moi­selle Reisz inquires about Edna’s recent under­tak­ings and is star­tled to hear about Edna’s new­found aspi­ra­tion to be an artist. She cau­tions her that it neces­si­tates brav­ery, a spir­it that “ven­tures and chal­lenges.” Edna affirms that she is res­olute if noth­ing else. This prompts Made­moi­selle to chuck­le, hand over the let­ter, and com­mence play­ing the Chopin piece Edna had inquired about. The music deeply affects Edna, bring­ing her to tears as Made­moi­selle tran­si­tions from the Impromp­tu to “Isolde’s song.” Upon Edna’s request for anoth­er meet­ing, Made­moi­selle wel­comes her anytime.

Chapter 22

Léonce con­fides his con­cerns about his spouse, Edna, to their fam­i­ly physi­cian, Doc­tor Man­delet. He unveils that their mar­i­tal inti­ma­cy has waned and divulges Edna’s con­tem­pla­tions on wom­en’s lib­er­ties. The doc­tor inquires if she has been swayed by any female “pseu­do-intel­lec­tu­als,” allud­ing to the women’s soci­eties of the era. Léonce dis­miss­es this, stat­ing Edna has turned into a recluse, for­sak­ing even her week­ly social engage­ments. The doc­tor then inter­ro­gates Edna’s her­itage. Léonce con­firms that she descends from a respect­ed Pres­by­ter­ian lin­eage but con­cedes that her soon-to-be-mar­ried younger sis­ter, Janet, is some­what spir­it­ed. Dr. Man­delet sug­gests that Edna attend the nup­tials, but Léonce reveals she has already declined, brand­ing wed­dings as “one of the most deplorable spec­ta­cles on earth.” The doc­tor rec­om­mends grant­i­ng Edna space, even if it entails leav­ing her home alone dur­ing his busi­ness trav­els, assur­ing him that her cur­rent tem­pera­ment will pass. Dr. Man­delet also sug­gests din­ing at their abode to sub­tly observe Edna. He sus­pects that Edna may have a clan­des­tine para­mour but refrains from prob­ing further.

Chapter 23

Edna’s father, for­mer­ly a Con­fed­er­ate army colonel, spends some time in New Orleans select­ing a wed­ding present for Janet and out­fit­ting for the wed­ding. Despite her father’s for­mal mil­i­tary bear­ing, Edna finds solace in his com­pa­ny. She even sketch­es him in her art stu­dio as he pos­es patient­ly. Dur­ing a musi­cal gath­er­ing at Adèle’s, he is cap­ti­vat­ed by Adèle’s delight­ful demeanor. Mean­while, Léonce, as is cus­tom­ary, abstains from the event for his club excur­sion, a deci­sion Adèle reproach­es. Edna rebuffs Adèle’s propo­si­tion that they should spend evenings at home togeth­er, indi­cat­ing they “would­n’t have any­thing to talk about.”” Edna delights in attend­ing to her father, cher­ish­ing their bond but rec­og­niz­ing it may not endure. Doc­tor Man­delet dines at the Pon­tel­li­er res­i­dence but dis­cerns no cause for alarm in Edna’s behav­iors. Her rec­ol­lec­tion of a day at the races with her father seems pleas­ing to him. They take turns shar­ing engag­ing anec­dotes. The Colonel recounts war sto­ries, Léonce nar­rates about his ear­ly days, and the doc­tor tells a tale about a woman who recov­ers her san­i­ty fol­low­ing numer­ous ill-advised liaisons. Edna responds with a fab­ri­cat­ed account, sup­pos­ed­ly from Madame Antoine, about a woman who van­ish­es with her lover into the islands. Only the doc­tor per­ceives the hid­den mes­sage in Edna’s account. As he departs, he pon­ders, “I hope to heav­en it isn’t Alcée Arobin.””

Chapter 24

Edna and her father, the Colonel, engage in a heat­ed debate about her choice to forego Janet’s wed­ding in New York. Despite the ten­sion, Léonce refrains from inter­ven­ing, opt­ing to attend the wed­ding him­self to com­pen­sate for Edna’s absence. The Colonel crit­i­cizes Léon­ce’s fail­ure to man­age Edna, assert­ing a man should assert “com­mand” and “coer­cion” with his spouse. As Léon­ce’s jour­ney to New York approach­es, Edna dis­plays unex­pect­ed ten­der­ness and affec­tion towards him. She acknowl­edges his past kind­ness and even sheds tears on the day of his depar­ture. The chil­dren also depart to accom­pa­ny Léon­ce’s moth­er, Madame Pon­tel­li­er, in the coun­try­side. Left soli­tary, Edna encoun­ters a “lumi­nous tran­quil­i­ty.” She appre­ci­ates the ele­gance of her abode and gar­dens as if behold­ing them for the first time, rel­ish­es soli­tary sup­pers in her night­wear, and pass­es her evenings immersed in lit­er­a­ture in the library before retiring.

Chapter 25

Edna’s ini­tial tran­quil­i­ty fol­low­ing her fam­i­ly’s absence soon dis­si­pates. Some days, she feels opti­mistic about her future, embrac­ing the vivac­i­ty of youth. On oth­er days, she iso­lates her­self, per­ceiv­ing her life as slip­ping away. When she is in a socia­ble mood, she social­izes with her Grand Isle peers or attends eques­tri­an events. Dur­ing one such excur­sion, Alcée Arobin and Mrs. High­camp invite her to accom­pa­ny them to the race­track. Alcée had encoun­tered Edna pre­vi­ous­ly and was impressed by her knowl­edge of race­hors­es when he saw her with her father. Fol­low­ing a meal with the High­camps, Alcée escorts Edna back home, per­suad­ing her to join him for anoth­er race. Edna regrets not urg­ing him to stay when he departs and has a restive night, awak­en­ing to remem­ber­ing she has yet to write her cus­tom­ary let­ter to Léonce. Days lat­er, Alcée and Edna attend the races alone. Alcée, renowned for his unre­strained com­port­ment around young ladies, remains for din­ner with Edna sub­se­quent­ly. Dur­ing their dis­cus­sion, he dis­cov­ers her dor­mant sen­su­al­i­ty, caus­ing Edna to feel uneasy. Though she is unde­ni­ably drawn to Alcée, she wor­ries that she is veer­ing towards unfaith­ful­ness. Fol­low­ing Alcée’s depar­ture, she reflects on the hand he had caressed, feel­ing taint­ed. Sur­pris­ing­ly, it is not her spouse whom she believes she has betrayed — it is Robert who occu­pies her thoughts.

Chapter 26

Alcée writes a con­cil­ia­to­ry mes­sage to Edna, who, embar­rassed at hav­ing tak­en him seri­ous­ly, responds with light-heart­ed ban­ter. Inter­pret­ing this as encour­age­ment, Alcée esca­lates his flir­ta­tious advances. Ini­tial­ly star­tled, Edna soon finds her­self rel­ish­ing his atten­tion, arous­ing her sen­su­al crav­ings. Edna’s reg­u­lar vis­its to Made­moi­selle Reisz pro­vide her with emo­tion­al com­fort. At one encounter, Edna dis­clos­es her inten­tion to vacate her present dwelling, which she feels no affin­i­ty towards, and lease a small­er res­i­dence near­by. She aims to finance this through her earn­ings from the race­track and pro­ceeds from her sketch­es. Made­moi­selle Reisz, sens­ing a deep­er motive behind Edna’s deci­sion, urges her to con­fess her yearn­ing for inde­pen­dence and lib­er­ty. Despite acknowl­edg­ing this, nei­ther can ful­ly grasp the ratio­nale behind Edna’s relo­ca­tion. Made­moi­selle Reisz main­tains the prac­tice of pass­ing on Robert’s let­ters to Edna with­out Robert’s knowl­edge, as he endeav­ors to erase Edna from his thoughts, believ­ing she is “not free to heed him or belong to him.” Upon learn­ing of Robert’s immi­nent return to New Orleans, Edna is tak­en aback. In the intense exchange that ensues, Made­moi­selle Reisz probes Edna’s loy­al­ty to Robert with decep­tive state­ments con­cern­ing love. Rec­og­niz­ing the gen­uine­ness of Edna’s sen­ti­ments, she teas­es Edna’s blush while pro­fess­ing her love for Robert. Brim­ming with antic­i­pa­tion, Edna returns home, send­ing gifts to her sons and inform­ing Léonce, through a cheer­ful let­ter, of her plan to relo­cate to the small­er residence.

Chapter 27

That evening, Alcée finds Edna in a con­tem­pla­tive mood. She con­fess­es to feel­ing “dev­il­ish­ly wicked” by soci­etal stan­dards, yet she does not per­ceive her­self in such a light. Alcée ten­der­ly touch­es her face as he lis­tens to her account of her day with Made­moi­selle Reisz. Reisz had touched her shoul­der blades, cau­tion­ing that a bird ven­tur­ing to soar above tra­di­tion and prej­u­dice must pos­sess stur­dy wings or risk falling back to the ground, bat­tered and bruised. Alcée inquires about Edna’s des­ti­na­tion for the flight, to which she con­fess­es not fore­see­ing any “extra­or­di­nary flights.” In truth, she admits to only par­tial­ly grasp­ing the elder wom­an’s per­spec­tive. Alcée kiss­es Edna, prompt­ing her to “clasp his head.” This kiss from Alcée is “the first … of her life to which her nature had tru­ly respond­ed. It was a blaz­ing torch that ignit­ed desire.”

Chapter 28

Once Alcée departs, Edna is over­whelmed with tears. Her guilt stems from the abun­dance of mate­r­i­al com­forts pro­vid­ed by her hus­band, mak­ing her real­ize her irre­spon­si­bil­i­ty. Nev­er­the­less, she feels no regret or shame. Instead, it is her deep­en­ing affec­tion for Robert that pro­found­ly affects her, grow­ing “quick­er, fiercer,” and “more over­pow­er­ing.” She expe­ri­ences a sud­den clar­i­ty, “as if a mist had been lift­ed from her eyes, enabling her to look upon and com­pre­hend the sig­nif­i­cance of life…” Her only regret is that her kiss with Alcée lacked affection.

Chapter 29

Edna does not await Léon­ce’s response, prepar­ing her­self to move into a near­by res­i­dence referred to as the “pigeon house” by one of her maids. This term is used to draw par­al­lels in size and style to the opu­lent pigeon coops owned by the wealthy. Upon Alcée’s arrival, he dis­cov­ers Edna in an old ensem­ble, metic­u­lous­ly pack­ing her belong­ings, items not bestowed by Léonce. She shows no par­tic­u­lar warmth towards him, engrossed in her task. Alcée reminds Edna of the forth­com­ing din­ner gath­er­ing she has orga­nized, and she con­firms its sched­ul­ing for the eve of her tran­si­tion. Despite his entreaties to meet ear­li­er, she teas­ing­ly rebukes him. Nev­er­the­less, her gaze empow­ers him “with eyes that both embold­ened him to await and tor­ment­ed him in waiting.”

Chapter 30

Edna’s din­ner event in cel­e­bra­tion of her new res­i­dence is inti­mate and exclu­sive, accom­mo­dat­ing friends from high soci­ety, Made­moi­selle Reisz, Vic­tor Lebrun, and Alcée. With Adèle’s preg­nan­cy near­ing its con­clu­sion, her spouse stands in on her behalf. The ambiance is extrav­a­gant, adorned with gold and yel­low accents through­out the room. Edna men­tions that it is her 29th birth­day and pro­pos­es a toast to her well-being with a liba­tion con­coct­ed by the Colonel for Janet’s nup­tials. Alcée, how­ev­er, redi­rects the toast to the Colonel him­self, in trib­ute to “the daugh­ter he imag­ined.” Despite her regal appear­ance, Edna is con­sumed by desire and despon­den­cy, her thoughts pre­oc­cu­pied with Robert. As Made­moi­selle Reisz and Adèle’s spouse depart, the atten­tion turns to Vic­tor. He is bedecked by Mrs. High­camp with a gar­land of ros­es and a silk scarf, exud­ing an “Ori­en­tal beau­ty” allure. When request­ed to sing, he melo­dra­mat­i­cal­ly acqui­esces, com­menc­ing with “Ah! Si tu savais!” This com­pels Edna to insist that he stops, emphat­i­cal­ly set­ting her glass down, shat­ter­ing it. Vic­tor per­sists until Edna cov­ers his mouth and reit­er­ates her demand. He com­plies, bestow­ing a kiss on her hand with a “pleas­ant sting.” This ges­ture sig­nals to the guests the close of the evening.

Chapter 31

After all, depart, Alcée lingers and aids Edna in secur­ing her vast res­i­dence. She walks with him to the bird­house, which he has unex­pect­ed­ly embell­ished with blos­soms. Upon announc­ing his depar­ture, he observes her grad­ual response to his ges­tures of affec­tion and sits next to her, show­er­ing her shoul­ders with ten­der kiss­es, yield­ing her to his “gen­tle, seduc­tive entreaties.”

Chapter 32

Léonce reacts to Edna’s relo­ca­tion with a stern let­ter of oppo­si­tion. He does not ques­tion her motives but appre­hends that it may spark rumors of his finan­cial insta­bil­i­ty. To counter these poten­tial spec­u­la­tions, he enlists a renowned archi­tect to refur­bish their res­i­dence. He employs a news­pa­per adver­tise­ment to announce plans for an over­seas excur­sion with Edna dur­ing the ren­o­va­tions. As her hus­band remains away, Edna under­goes a devel­op­ment in her self-aware­ness and spir­i­tu­al­i­ty. She pays a vis­it to her chil­dren at their grand­moth­er’s abode in Iberville, a jour­ney she finds so delight­ful that she car­ries mem­o­ries of their laugh­ter and enthu­si­asm on her return to New Orleans.

Chapter 33

Adèle vis­its Edna, express­ing appre­hen­sions regard­ing her friend’s new and autonomous lifestyle. She cau­tions Edna about jeop­ar­diz­ing her rep­u­ta­tion due to Alcée’s fre­quent calls, remark­ing “his atten­tions alone are … ade­quate to ruin a woman’s rep­u­ta­tion.” Fol­low­ing sev­er­al inter­rup­tions hin­der­ing Edna’s paint­ing efforts, she resolves to vis­it Made­moi­selle Reisz. How­ev­er, upon find­ing the apart­ment unoc­cu­pied, she decides to wait there. She is tak­en aback when Robert, who has just returned, lands at her site. After two days, there is a gen­tle knock­ing on the door. Edna ques­tions Robert’s sen­ti­ments towards her, pon­der­ing why he did­n’t vis­it her prompt­ly upon his return. Ner­vous­ly, Robert opens up about his fond­ness for her briefly dur­ing a pause in their con­ver­sa­tion. When con­front­ed about his lack of cor­re­spon­dence, he con­fess­es that he did­n’t believe she would be inter­est­ed. Dis­miss­ing this expla­na­tion, Edna decides not to wait for Made­moi­selle Reisz. Lat­er, Robert gal­lant­ly escorts Edna back home, and she extends an invi­ta­tion for din­ner, which he ini­tial­ly declines but lat­er changes his mind upon sens­ing her dis­ap­point­ment. Inside her abode, Robert notices a pho­to­graph of Alcée, which Edna explains is for a sketch study. Delv­ing into his doubts, Robert sub­tly ques­tions her, prompt­ing Edna to shift the dia­logue toward his expe­ri­ences in Mex­i­co. He reveals that his thoughts were con­tin­u­ous­ly anchored in their shared moments. Edna mir­rors his nos­tal­gic sen­ti­ments almost iden­ti­cal­ly when speak­ing about her time in New Orleans — a move that prompts Robert to label her as “cru­el.” An uneasy silence descends upon them until din­ner is served.

Chapter 34

Dur­ing the meal­time, Edna and Robert exhib­it an unchar­ac­ter­is­tic for­mal­i­ty, devoid of their usu­al live­ly inter­ac­tions. After din­ner, in the lounge, Edna broach­es the sub­ject of a young Mex­i­can girl who gift­ed Robert a tobac­co pouch, spark­ing a con­ver­sa­tion. Unex­pect­ed­ly, Alcée arrives bear­ing a note invit­ing Edna for a card game. Upon notic­ing Robert’s pres­ence, Alcée prompt­ly ini­ti­ates a dis­cus­sion about the allure of Mex­i­can girls, caus­ing Robert to respond in a chilly man­ner. Soon there­after, Robert takes his leave, leav­ing Edna in the com­pa­ny of Alcée. Alcée sug­gests a late-night dri­ve, which Edna declines, opt­ing for soli­tude over com­pan­ion­ship. The remain­der of her evening is spent reflect­ing on her exchange with Robert, feel­ing a sud­den emo­tion­al void and expe­ri­enc­ing jeal­ousy as she envi­sions him with the cap­ti­vat­ing young Mex­i­can girl.

Chapter 35

The next day, Edna ris­es with hope, believ­ing that her reac­tion to Robert’s aloof­ness the pre­vi­ous night may have been exag­ger­at­ed. Antic­i­pat­ing his vis­it that after­noon or evening, she reads let­ters from her son Raoul and hus­band Leonce dur­ing break­fast. Leonce details his plans to return in March for an over­seas trip. Addi­tion­al­ly, she receives a note from Alcée pro­claim­ing his love and con­fi­dence in her rec­i­p­ro­ca­tion. While joy­ous­ly reply­ing to her chil­dren, Edna abstains from respond­ing to Alcée, tuck­ing his note beneath the maid­’s stove lid. Her response to Leonce about the impend­ing trip remains non­com­mit­tal. Edna is not attempt­ing to deceive Leonce, yet she can­not envi­sion the impend­ing jour­ney or real­i­ty, as she believes she has sur­ren­dered to fate, await­ing the out­come unper­turbed. Sev­er­al days pass with­out Robert’s vis­it. Edna evades encoun­ters with Made­moi­selle Reisz and Madame Lebrun, fear­ing they might per­ceive her as des­per­ate for Robert’s com­pa­ny. Each morn­ing, she awak­ens with hope, only to retire to bed in despair. On one occa­sion, she accepts Alcée’s propo­si­tion to join him on a lake excur­sion; upon their return to her abode, the bud­ding phys­i­cal inti­ma­cy between them deep­ens. That night, she finds solace from her despon­den­cy, yet the hope­ful sen­ti­ment she had been wak­ing up to recent­ly is con­spic­u­ous­ly absent the fol­low­ing morning.

Chapter 36

Unex­pect­ed­ly, Edna and Robert chance upon each oth­er at a beloved gar­den café out­side New Orleans. Robert appears sur­prised and some­what uneasy but con­sents to dine with Edna. Despite intend­ing to main­tain a facade of reserve, Edna can­did­ly voic­es her dis­ap­point­ment with Robert’s detach­ment, brand­ing him as self­ish and dis­mis­sive of her emo­tions. She asserts her fear­less­ness in express­ing her thoughts, irre­spec­tive of how “unwom­an­ly” they may seem. In response, Robert accus­es her of deriv­ing plea­sure from his anguish, assert­ing that she enjoys behold­ing an untreat­ed wound with­out the inten­tion or abil­i­ty to heal it. To dif­fuse the ten­sion, Edna steers the con­ver­sa­tion towards light ban­ter. Their inter­ac­tions lead them to the pigeon house. Upon rejoin­ing Robert after fresh­en­ing up, Edna impul­sive­ly kiss­es him. Rec­i­p­ro­cat­ing the ges­ture, he embraces and kiss­es her in return, divulging that his sojourn in Mex­i­co was an attempt to flee from his feel­ings for her. In a sur­pris­ing rev­e­la­tion, Edna declares that the sce­nario he per­ceived as a dream is real­i­ty – she does not belong to Leonce and will choose her own path. Their inti­mate moment is inter­rupt­ed when Edna’s ser­vant noti­fies her of Adèle’s labor, demand­ing her pres­ence. Assur­ing Robert of her love for him and promis­ing mutu­al devo­tion in the future, she leaves. Despite Robert’s entreaties for her to stay, over­whelmed by his yearn­ing to hold her, she instructs him to await her return.

Chapter 37

Adèle appears dis­tressed and fatigued as she awaits her doc­tor. Recall­ing her own child­birth expe­ri­ences, albeit vague and dis­tant, caus­es Edna dis­com­fort. Despite her strong incli­na­tion to flee, she remains by Adèle’s side. Wit­ness­ing the ago­niz­ing ordeal, Edna har­bors inter­nal dis­tress and vehe­ment resis­tance towards nature’s process­es. Upon the ces­sa­tion of Adèle’s suf­fer­ing, Edna bids her farewell with a part­ing kiss. As she departs, Adèle implores, “Think of the chil­dren, Edna. Oh think of the children!”

Chapter 38

Accom­pa­nied by Dr. Man­delet, the same physi­cian attend­ing to Adèle, Edna heads to her pigeon house. Dr. Man­delet express­es con­cern over leav­ing Adèle in the care of anoth­er woman who may be less amenable to influ­ence. Inquir­ing about Edna’s plans for a joint over­seas trip with Leonce, he is met with a firm refusal, as Edna asserts her refusal to be coerced into any­thing fur­ther. She main­tains that none can com­pel her against her will, except per­haps for the sake of her chil­dren. Despite her some­what dis­joint­ed expla­na­tion, Dr. Man­delet grasps the depth of her con­vic­tions. He acknowl­edges the sus­cep­ti­bil­i­ty of young indi­vid­u­als to illu­sions, view­ing sex­u­al desire as nature’s mech­a­nism to ensure the sur­vival of off­spring. He posits that pri­mal pas­sions tran­scend moral judg­ments. Before depart­ing, Dr. Man­delet extends an offer of an empa­thet­ic ear should Edna find her­self in dis­tress. While acknowl­edg­ing her fre­quent des­o­la­tion, Edna is ret­i­cent about divulging her sor­row to him. What she yearns for is free­dom, irre­spec­tive of the con­se­quences, even if it involves dis­re­gard­ing the sen­ti­ments and bias­es of oth­ers. She implores the doc­tor not to pass judg­ment upon her, and he reas­sures her, stat­ing he would only cen­sure her if she fails to seek his guid­ance, absolv­ing her of respon­si­bil­i­ty regard­less of the out­comes. Edna sits solo on her porch, reflect­ing on Adèle’s part­ing guid­ance, com­mit­ting to con­tem­plat­ing her chil­dren post her meet­ing with Robert the next day. How­ev­er, her hopes are dashed upon dis­cov­er­ing Robert has depart­ed, leav­ing behind a note declar­ing, “I love you. Goodbye—because I love you.” She spends the night in rest­less con­tem­pla­tion on the par­lor sofa.

Chapter 39

Dur­ing a casu­al exchange between Vic­tor and Mariequi­ta on Grand Isle, their atten­tion is drawn to Edna’s approach. Despite the chilly cli­mate, Edna seeks soli­tude and relax­ation. Plan­ning to join them for lunch lat­er, she heads for a soli­tary swim, dis­re­gard­ing their cau­tion­ary remarks con­cern­ing the frigid water. Pri­or to that, she had con­tem­plat­ed her love for Robert, her indif­fer­ence towards Leonce, and the recog­ni­tion that her chil­dren are her sole true ties to her con­strained exis­tence. How­ev­er, Edna’s reflec­tions under­go a trans­for­ma­tion as she tra­vers­es the shore­line. Wit­ness­ing a wound­ed bird plum­met into the waves, she retrieves her for­got­ten swim­suit and, stand­ing alone, undress­es for the first time in nature, feel­ing like a nov­el being in an unfa­mil­iar realm. Engulfed by the sea, she rumi­nates on Léonce, her chil­dren, Robert, and Made­moi­selle Reisz’s belief in the neces­si­ty for artists to pos­sess coura­geous souls. Recall­ing Robert’s mis­sive, she is con­vinced of his lack of under­stand­ing of her true self, now deemed irre­triev­able even by Doc­tor Man­delet. Suc­cumb­ing to fatigue, her mind filled with child­hood rec­ol­lec­tions, she sur­ren­ders to the vast sea.