The Awakening

‘Something put into my head that you cared for me; and I lost my senses,' writes Kate Chopin towards the end of her heartbreaking novel, The Awakening. The story takes place in the late nineteenth-century Louisiana, near New Orleans. We follow our protagonist, Edna Pontellier, as she navigates her journey towards self-fulfillment and independence.

Edna is in a loveless marriage with a husband who sees her as a statuette or a rare painting among his personal “household gods.” Enter Robert, a young man with an aptitude for art who enjoys the company of Edna and always takes the time to compliment her hobbies, accompanies her to the Gulf Coast, guards her while she sleeps, and sings fun lullabies in French.

Robert decides to move to Mexico to pursue a business venture. Edna is shocked to hear about this revelation, and while he is gone, she starts to realize she was in love with him.

“Robert's voice was not pretentious. It was musical and true. The voice, the notes, the whole refrain haunted her memory.”

Robert promises to write to her while he is away, but instead sends telegrams to Edna's friend because he thinks that she does not care for him. “I realized what a cur I was to dream of such a thing, even if you had been willing.”