The Awakening by Kate Chopin: Summary

      Sometime in the late 1800s, In Grand Isle, the wealthy Pontellier family are on a summer holiday at the cottages owned by Madame Lebrun.  Léonce Pontellier is a kind, famous, 40 year old businessman who loves his family but is preoccupied by his work.  His frequent business-related trips/absences forces a wedge between him and his wife Edna.  Edna is also tired of her children.  As a result, she spends most of her time with Adele Ratignolle, a married Creole (people of French or Spanish descent) who is the epitome of the ideal traditional wife.  Through this friendship, Edna learns a lot about self expression.  She learns from Adele, that since Creole women were already assumed to be innocent and chaste, they could get away with being brutally honest and saying nasty things, since they were downplayed anyway.  Seeing how open they are, Edna becomes more honest about her repressed emotions and desires.
    Edna's "awakening" is accelerated upon meeting Robert, the son of Madame Lebrun.  He is known in the Grand Isle for being a play boy who devotes himself to one woman each year (often a married woman).  This year, he spends his summer with Edna and the two spend their days together lounging and talking by the shore.  He takes her to a dinner party, introducing her to Mademoiselle Reisz, the unmarried, childless, recluse, pianist.  The music that she plays moves Edna to tears and awakens her to the idea of being an independent woman.
    Léonce proves to be a terrible partner when he yells at Edna for embarrassing him by being untraditional.  Unlike what she is expected to do, she does not worship her husband or give up her life to take care of her children, calling her a neglectful mother.  This argument causes Edna to cry at night and finally confront her dissatisfaction with her marriage.  Robert's words and attention also inspire her revelation that she feels actual desire and emotional fulfillment.  She also finds that she feels the same emotional fulfillment and freedom when she learns how to swim.  The ocean gives her a sense of freedom that no one could ever give her.  Robert and Edna never confront their forbidden love, and Robert abruptly leaves the Grand Isle for Mexico to avoid his love for her.  Edna later returns to New Orleans as a changed woman.

    

    Back in New Orleans, Edna grows distant from her family and begins pursuing her passion for painting.  She neglects all of her household duties and begins to assert her independence.  Worried about her sudden change in behavior, Léonce consults their family doctor/friend, Doctor Mandelet.  Although he suspects that the change is due to her having an affair, he tells him that he should let her do her own thing since trying to stop her will only fuel her rebellion.  Léonce listens to the advice and lets Edna stay home alone while he is away on business, with the kids staying at their grandparents' place.  With everyone away, Edna fully rejects her former, traditional lifestyle.  She moves into a home of her own and declares that she is an independent woman.

    Although she is still madly in love with Robert, she still begins a sexual affair with Alcée Arobin, a known play boy, who is able to satisfy her sexual desire.  Since she is never emotionally attached to him, she is able to satisfy her desire while remaining free from male domination.

    Mademoiselle Reisz takes Edna under her wing and acts as her sanctuary.  She is moved by her piano playing and visits her often.  Being a woman who dedicates her life solely to music, she serves as an inspiration and a role model for Edna.  Through the letters that she receives from Robert, Mademoiselle Reisz is also the only one who actually knows about the romance between him and Edna.  She encourages her to admit and act on her feelings for Robert.  However, she warns her of the sacrifices expected of an artist.

    Robert unexpectedly returns to New Orleans and expresses his love for Edna but reminds her that they can't actually get together since she's still technically married.  Edna tells him that she is willing to leave Léonce, and that she is now an independent woman, is an artist, that she has her own house, and that they can live happily together.  However, Robert is still iffy about it.

    Later on, Adéle undergoes a rocky childbirth, and Edna leaves Robert to go support her friend, pleading with him to stay until she returns.  When she gets to her home, Adéle reminds Edna to think of her children, and reminds her of the socially acceptable lifestyle that she abandoned.  She later leaves with Doctor Mandelet, who urges her to come by his office because he is worried about what her passionate and weird actions might cause.  These events cause Edna to slowly come to terms with the fact that she might've acted a little selfishly.

    When she comes home, she finds that Robert left a note saying that "I love you.  Goodby— because I love you."  Basically saying that he left because he realized that they can't be thing because they can't defy societal constraints.  Getting married would cause a scandal since Edna's still married.  Robert felt that being married to an untraditional wife would cause backlash, and it would also stop Edna from being the independent woman she desires to be.

    The haunting reminder of her children and realization that even the love of her life is unable to fulfill her dreams, she feels an overwhelming feeling of solitude.  She returns to the Grand Isle, strips free of all of her constraints (butt-ass naked), and begins swimming in the ocean.  She thinks of her children, husband, her lover's inability to understand her, and Mademoiselle Reisz' words of wisdom.  Realizing that she can't return to her traditional life or fully achieve independence within society, Edna continues to swim until she is overcome by the water.