"The Awakening is too strong drink for moral babes, and should be labelled 'poison.'"
    --Review, St. Louis Dispatch, 1899

Things to Consider:

• Homosociality vs. Heterosexuality
• Social Conventions
• "True Womanhood": Piety, Purity, Submission, Domesticity
• Woman's "passionlessness"
• Solitude
• Darwin & Naturalism
• Music/Arts (Perhaps compare with "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens")
• Sea/Water/Swimming images: Feminine Symbolism?
• Race, Class, Gender: Interactions/Interdependencies
• Edna vs. Harriet/Linda
• Leonce vs. Dr. Flint

** Homework Questions ** (See Q's for Part Two )

• Describe the role of Fate in Edna's life.
• Describe the relationship between Leonce and Edna. How do they view each other?

• Explain: "Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman" (33).
• Describe Adele Ratignolle. How does she compare to Edna?

• Explain:  "The voice of the sea speaks to the soul" (36).

• Explain: "As she swam she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself" (45).

• Explain: "She was blindly following whatever impulse moved her, as if she had placed herself in alien hands for direction, and freed her soul of responsibility" (48).

• Explain: "I would give my life for my children, but I wouldn't give myself" (57).

• Why does Edna stomp on her wedding ring and break a vase? How do these acts relate to the discussion on page 59 of how Leonce views his "possessions"?

• Explain: "He could not see that she was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world" (63).

• Where is Grand Isle? 

• Why is Edna crying?

• What is a Creole? How are Creoles characterized by the narrator?

• Describe Robert Lebrun.

• Explain this description of Edna's "dual life":  "the outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions" (37).

• Who is "the tragedian"?

• Why does Adele tell Robert to leave Edna alone? How does he respond?

• Why does Mrs. Lebrun have a "black girl" do the treadle on the sewing machine?

• What is the significance of Edna's renaming a particular song "Solitude"?

47:

• Explain: "No multitude of words could have been more significant than those moments of silence, or more pregnant with the first felt throbbings of desire" (47).  Whom/What does she desire?
• Why does Edna stay in the hammock, despite her husband's insistence that she come inside?

• Who is Mariequita?  What is her purpose here?
• What is the siginificance of the anchor and chain imagery on this page? What do they represent?

• Why does Edna leave the church?
• Why, according to Robert, is it "folly" even to have thought about going to church?

• How does Edna appear different to herself?

• Why does Robert go to Mexico?

• Why is Edna jealous of Mrs. Lebrun for receiving a letter from Robert? Is this jealousy justified?

• Why is it such a big deal that Edna goes out on Tuesday instead of staying home and receiving callers?

• Who is Cité?  Why is she significant?
• What is "blind contentment"? Why does Edna feel pity for Adele for not being "uplifted" above it?

• Why does Leonce suspect Edna is becoming "unbalanced mentally"?

70:

• Explain the significance of Edna's reply to the suggestion that her husband should stay home more often.

• How does Dr. Mandelet describe the change he sees in Edna?  To what/whom does he attribute this change?

• Why doesn't Edna go to her sister's wedding?

• Explain the suggestion that Arobin talks "in a way that pleased her at last, appealing to the animalism that stirred impatiently within her" (76).

• Why is Edna moving in to her own place?

• Explain:  "She had abandoned herself to Fate, and awaited the consequences with indifference" (92).
• To what extent can Arobin be considered a surrogate for Robert?

• If Robert loves her, why does he say "Good-by"?

• Is it accurate for her to think that her children and husband "thought they could possess her, body and soul" (99)?  Explain.
• Why does she kill herself?  When does she decide to do so?  Why does she choose drowning?

• Why does Robert write to Mademoiselle Reisz?

• Why does Leonce consult Dr. Mandelet about Edna?
• Explain Dr. Mandelet's attitude toward the "circle of pseudo-intellectual women."

• Why does the doctor think it would be good for Edna to go to her sister's wedding?
• Why does he think "the mood will pass"?

• Compare the "stories" Dr. Mandelet and Edna tell after dinner.

• How does her father tell Leonce to "manage" Edna?
• How does Edna react to her husband's departure?
• Why do the children leave?

• Why does betting on the horse intoxicate Edna?

• Why does she have such an appetite when she gets home?

• Who is Edna afraid of upsetting when Arobin kisses her hand?

• Why does Robert keep writing to Reisz, not Edna?

• Why is Edna throwing a party?

• Explain Mademoiselle Reisz's statement about "wings."

• Why will Edna let Leonce pay the bills for her farewell party?

• What is the significance of the party occurring on Edna's 29th birthday?

• Why does Mrs. Highcamp "decorate" Victor Lebrun?

• How does Leonce "save appearances"?

• What is Mrs. Ratignolle's "hour of trial"?

• Why has Robert returned?

• Explain:  "But some way he had appeared nearer to her off there in Mexico" (91).

• What is the symbolic significance of the cat Edna and Robert pet?

• Explain:  "I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier's possessions to dispose of not" (94).

• How well does Edna's rememberance of childbirth correspond to her experiences in this novel?
• Why does Mrs. Ratignolle tell Edna to "think of the children" (96)?

• How does the description of Edna standing naked at the seashore compare to the vision of a naked man she has on page 44?
• Does Edna "think of the children" at the end?  Explain.