The Awakening and Other Stories

Edna Pontellier is a married woman, mother of sons, and wife of a respectable, conventional man. The Pontelliers live in New Orleans during the waning of the 19th century, part of a society with set expectations for mothers, wives, and women. While others seem accepting of or content with the strictures, so much so that the rules of society are defining of personhood, over the course of a hot, languid summer, Edna stops conforming. What does that mean for her sense of self? For her long-suppressed desires? What options are available to her, now that she has come to this point? It turns out that few choices greet Edna, who finds that even if she stops seeing herself as limited and controlled, the world she lives in does not. Falteringly, deliberately, defiantly, Edna makes choices for something even she has trouble articulating, so unspeakable and fragile is her wanting. In response, her husband and others compress her into what becomes a vanishing point.