Edna Pontellier, an aristocrat from late nineteenth-century New Orleans, goes on vacation with her husband and children. There she meets and falls in love with Robert Lebrun. She also learns to swim, returns to her painting, and listens to the passionate piano playing of eccentric Mademoiselle Reisz. For the first time, Edna feels alive. When she returns to New Orleans, she is unable to fit herself back into her social role. She defies her husband and ignores her friends. When her husband leaves town, she sets up her own house with money she has earned from her increasingly adept painting. She has an affair with the town seducer. When Robert returns from a trip abroad, they passionately embrace. But Robert can not bear the stigma of adultery. He leaves her again. Edna returns to the vacation site and drowns herself.
Margaret Culley
Excerpted, with permission, from the New York University School of Medicine, © New York University.

Female Sexuality and Desire
The novel boldly portrays the sexual awakening and desires of the protagonist Edna Pontellier, challenging societal norms that repressed female sexuality at the time. Edna's journey of self-discovery involves embracing her sensuality and having affairs, which was highly controversial.

Women's Independence and Individuality
A central theme is Edna's struggle to establish her sense of self and independence apart from the restrictive roles imposed on women as wives and mothers. Her "awakening" represents a rejection of these traditional gender roles and expectations.

Marriage and Motherhood
The novel provides a candid critique of the institutions of marriage and motherhood, depicting how they can constrain and oppress women's identities. Edna feels stifled by the demands of her roles as a wife and mother.

Social Conventions and Repression
"The Awakening" exposes the repressive social conventions and moral codes of the Victorian era that dictated women's behavior and limited their freedom of expression. Edna's actions defy these norms, leading to her ostracization.

Symbolism of Nature and the Sea
Nature, especially the sea, is used symbolically to represent the freedom, passion, and sensuality that Edna craves but is denied in her domestic life.

The sea embodies Edna's awakening and escape from societal constraints. In tackling these controversial topics with remarkable honesty, "The Awakening" was groundbreaking feminist literature that challenged deep-rooted patriarchal values and gender roles in the late 19th century.