Her husband consults a doctor about her behavior, and Edna starts spending more time with male figures in the community. She neglects housework, something her husband sees as troubling. She spends more time painting and pursuing her independent interests than filling her duties as a wife. Edna feels depressed without his presence, and her depression sticks around as the family travels back to their home in New Orleans. Suddenly, Robert leaves for Mexico, something he’d spoken about doing but had never followed through with before.

Adele is a good mother and wife, exhibiting characteristics that Edna envies but which she also feels are at odds with her own life.Įdna yearns for independence, which is rare for women in the late 1800s, and begins to spend more time with Robert, developing real feelings for him. She learns how to paint and how to swim and spends a great deal of time with her friend Adele. While on vacation, Edna starts to develop feelings for her friend Robert. Edna spends her time trying to be an obedient wife and a good mother to her children, something that her husband fails to recognize. Robert Lebrun, a close male friend of Edna’s, is also introduced in the first pages. It becomes clear quite quickly that their married life is far from ideal.

Her husband, Léonce, is preoccupied with his work and friends and leaves her in the evenings with the children. The main character Edna is on vacation with her husband and their two young sons. The novel opens with a scene in the late 1800s in Grand Isle, a summer holiday resort for the wealthy of New Orleans. Spoiler alert: important details of the novel are revealed below. Her separation from society has incredible consequences for her and those around her. She is clearly unsatisfied, and as the novel progresses, she becomes more interested in pursuing her own passions, romantic and sexual relationships, and stepping away from the traditional role women were expected to play in the 19th century. While all of her female friends admire her husband and the relationship they have, Edna can’t help but feel depressed and deeply emotional about her marriage and family. The Pontellier family is vacationing over the summer at Grand Isle, a resort community made out of individual cottages overseen as a group.Įdna Pontellier, the protagonist, struggles to find peace of mind, despite the beautiful surroundings and the presence of her family. This deeply emotional, early feminist novel by Kate Chopin opens in the late 1800s in Louisiana. Chopin, hurt by the public’s reaction, wrote little after the novel’s publication. The novel is considered to be one of the earliest examples of feminist literature in the United States and was, unfortunately, less than positively received by the literary community when it was published.

Grand isle the awakening