The Awakening

Léonce returns and urges Edna to go to bed, since it is already past one 1 a.m. She tells him not to wait for her, because she will stay outside in the hammock. Léonce goes into their room and every sound that comes from there indicates how irritated he is with her stubbornness. It occurs to Edna that since they got married, she has been totally obedient to her husband, and never even considered the option of disagreeing with him. Yet now she feels so empowered that she cannot fathom how she could have been so submissive before. She tells Léonce to go back to bed, but instead, he sits on the porch, smoking cigars and drinking wine, which he offers to Edna and which she refuses. Right before dawn, Edna finally becomes sleepy and retires into the house. She asks her husband if he’s ready for bed; he responds that he will go inside after he finishes his cigar.

Edna sleeps only for a few “troubled and feverish hours,” (82) and wakes up early in the morning. While almost all vacationers are still asleep, Edna, as well as the lady in black and the two lovers, along with a few other people, are about to board the boat to the island of Chênière Caminada, for Sunday church service. Edna asks one of Madame Lebrun’s servants to wake Robert so that he can join her. This is the first time that Edna directly asks for Robert’s company. Nevertheless, neither Edna nor Robert finds this situation unusual. When Robert comes and sees Edna, his face is “suffused with a quiet glow” (83).

Once they board the boat, Robert begins a conversation with a young Spanish girl named Mariequita. Having noticed that Edna is looking at her, Mariequita asks Robert if Edna is his sweetheart. They both talk in Spanish and Edna cannot understand them. Robert only replies that she is a married woman with two children. Robert soon shifts his attention to Edna and no longer notices Mariequita. He proposes that they visit other nearby islands while they are vacationing at Grand Isle. They make tentative plans and joke about the treasures they will find and then fritter away together. Upon arriving, they all go together into the little Gothic church for the service.

During the mass, Edna feels drowsy and distressed. Another time she might have tried to calm herself, but this time she only wanted to leave the stuffy church and go outside. She walks out of the church, with Robert following behind. He suggests that she goes to the house of Madame Antoine, a native of the Chênière. After Madame Antoine warmly receives Edna and accommodates her in one of her rooms, Edna undresses herself almost completely and washes up at a basin. She stretches out in a high, white bed that Madame Antoine has prepared, and has a new affection for her arms, “as if [they] were something she saw for the first time, the fine, firm quality and texture of her flesh” (93). Soon afterward, she falls asleep and when she awakens, glowing and full of energy, she sees that there is no one in the cottage but Robert, who sits outside in the garden, reading a book. Edna feels as if she has slept for years and jokes that there must be a new race now and that they are the only remaining members of their race. Waking up very hungry, Edna devours the dinner that Robert has prepared. Robert says he has promised to bring her back in a boat that Madame Antoine’s son, Tonie, owns, and that they should go before the sun is gone. Edna does not seem to want to hurry back home. Madame Antoine tells Robert and Edna amusing stories while they sit under a tree and listen. Only after the sun has long set do they step into a boat and return home.

When Edna returns, Adèle tells her that Edna’s younger son, Etienne, has been misbehaving and refuses to go to bed, while his older brother, Raoul, has been in bed for two hours. Edna takes Etienne and lulls him to sleep. Adèle also tells her that at first Léonce was worried when Edna did not return from the island after mass, but he calmed down after Monsieur Farival assured him that Edna was merely resting at Madame Antoine’s and that Madame Antoine’s son would bring her home when she wakes up. After Monsieur Farival persuaded him not to cross the bay to get her himself, Léonce went to the club on business. Having reported all this to Edna, Adèle leaves for her own cottage, hating to leave her husband alone. Robert helps Edna put Etienne to bed and bids her goodnight. Before he leaves, Edna remarks that they have been together all day. Sitting alone on the porch and waiting for Léonce to return, Edna is contemplating an inexplicable transformation she has undergone during her stay at Grand Isle this summer. Since she is not tired, she assumes that Robert must not be tired, either, and she wonders why he decided to go, instead of staying with her. She regrets that he is not with her and sings to herself the song Robert had sung as they crossed the bay coming back from Chênière—“Ah! Si tu savais,” which translates to Ah! If only you knew (103).