Alex Dobek Period 4

The Awakening DQs

1. This story takes place in Grand Isle and New Orleans, Louisiana. Robert provides a potential for conflict because he is very good friends with Edna and he is attractive and has a very devious reputation. Edna also presents conflict because she expresses disdain with her life. Leonce is a very caring husband but doesnt spend very much time with his wife, which can easily lead to strife between husband and wife. He preferred to stay where he was and talk to Mrs. Pontellier. (4)

2. Mr. Pontellier is revealed as a very good husband. He cares a lot for his wife and provides for her well. Among the people of Grand Isle, Mr. Pontellier is revered as being a fabulous husband. Robert Lebrun is a young creole man with a reputation for trying to woo older women. He has become a very good friend to Edna. abundance of her husbands kindness and a uniform devotion (9)

3. Mrs. Pontellier is very attractive and extremely young. She is the type of woman that attracts many men. Edna has a very different background from her friends. She didnt grow up with very much influence, she was a very American girl in contrast to her very French friends. She is extremely good friends with Robert Lebrun even to a weird point. She was an American woman, with a small infusion of French (6)

4. Edna and her husband have an odd relationship. It seems all bright and happy on the outside but there are certain things that make it bad. Leonce reveals that he believes women have a certain place in society. Edna reveals she is trying to break out of her shell. There is some evidence where Leonce does not treat Edna with love and respect for example when he gets mad at her because one of the children have a fever. She is unhappy because she doesnt want to be a perfect wife. He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. (8)

5. He feels she is not a good mother because she doesnt even know one of her children has a fever. I dont feel thats a good reason to be mad. It may be hard to tell if one has a fever. She is different from others because she lets her children be more independent while other mothers baby their children greatly. Mrs. Lebrun cares for her son even up to a very old age. Mrs. Ratignolle cares greatly about her children and is seen as the perfect mother. He was not apt to rush to his mothers arms for comfort (11)

6. Edna is a women of the 1890s and is able to aknowledge her sexual desires. What seperates her from the Creole society is that she actually has the courage to act on them. She realizes that her whole life is not dependant on her husband and children and is able to establish her own identity. This stands out from the ideal Creole vision of a woman, in that their ideal woman is a woman who worships her husband and obsesses over the children. Robert and Edna become very passionate about each other and this helps Edna begin to express herself to him and to others. Mrs Pontellier, though she married a Creole, was not thoroughly at home in the society of Creoles

7. Ednas desire to be with Robert helps her begin to present her sense of personal identity and break out of the shell of what society wants her to be. Her baptism in the sea helps begin her awakening as a woman, and she is reborn. She is reborn not as a typical woman, and begins to pursue her interests as se pleases. This connects to her experiences as a girl, because as girl her and her friends were very contained and after being reborn she is able to shed herself of that containment. She is experiences conflicts between conforming to society and pursuing her own personal interests as a woman. Her marriage to Mr. Pontellier acts as something that confines her to societys ideal, and keeps her from doing as she pleases. Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions.

8. Robert was warned to leave Edna alone because she might take him seriously. He responds saying he wants her to take him seriously. Adele represents the Creole ideal for a women, yet she plays a facilitating role in Ednas awakening. She is one of Ednas close friends and understands her well, and her openness of discourse and expression plays a large and encouraging role in Ednas change. I only ask for one, let Mrs. Pontellier alone.

9. It is revealed that she views Victor as the irresponsible and impuslive son, and Robert as the wise one. She even complains that she wishes her husband was there whenever Victor acts up. She is not a very wise woman as both Robert and Victor are impulsive. As soon as Robert hears Edna is passing by he stops listening to his mother and goes to her. Whenever you say the word Im ready to thrash any amount of reason into him that hes able to hold.

10. The performances on the piano by the twins, Adele, and mademoiselle Reisz characterize the party. Edna is captivated the whole time, Robert is socializing and enjoying his time and pleasing Edna, Reisz is acknowledging Edna as her audience, and playing for her. Edna admires her, and her music makes her emotional, and this response is connected to her emotion of desire. "The very first chords which Mademoiselle Reisz struck upon the piano sent a keen tremor down Mrs. Pontellier's spinal column. "A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul. She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before." Chapter 10, pg. 36

11. Yes, it resembles the relationship and feelings between Edna and Robert. He does understand her, and he feels the same desire or lust, just not out of needing to escape a current situation. Perhaps he will never wholly release her from the spell. (44)

12. She is exemplifying her unwillingness to cooperate or comply. She doesn't listen to her husband, she has found her independence. She reveals her displeasure with her husband. They are signs, it shows that Edna will no longer obey him, she is her own person. "A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul. She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before." Chapter 10, pg. 36

13. She now wishes to spend time around Robert, which is unethical, but understandable because she wants to be away from her husband. Mariequita is the flirty Spanish girl, and she has a thing for Robert also. Her presence is to show the exact opposite of what Edna wishes to be. She had never sent for him before. She had never asked for him. (49) She was saucy the next, moving her head up and down, making eyes at Robert. (50) Why does she look at me like that? (51)

14. In Chapter 13 Edna is feeling dizzy and tired. This illness represents her being tied down and not independent. The room she rests in represents her transition to freedom. Once she wakes up she feels invigorated and has feelings of ultimate desire for Robert. How many years have I slept? she inquired. . . . A new race of beings must have sprung up, leaving only you and me as past relics. (48)

15. Leonce was very worried for Ednas safety and Endas son, Etienne, has refused to go to bed. Adele has cared for the children in her stead. Edna feels that her husband is not good for her anymore and longs for Robert. She realizes her time at Grand Isle was just a fantasy but she still longs for him. He had been unwilling to go to bed and made a scene; (59)

16. Robert leaves because he can't lead Edna on anymore without being able to act. Edna is really upset about this. She is infatuated with Robert, the way she felt as a kid. Edna believes herself to be self sufficient, and independent. "Edna could not have told why, wishing to go to the beach with Robert, which she should have in the first place declined..."

17. Mademoiselle Reisz can see Edna's inner struggle with independence and love. Edna reveals her passion for Robert, no passion for her husband, she shows no interest in her kids at all, and she takes pride in herself. I think she should be more focused on her kids. "Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions."

18. The Pontellier family is very different from the Ratignolle family. Edna was more of an impulsive mother and cared for her children more so when she felt passion for them, and Adele was constantly caring for her children. Adele is basically the ideal for how a Creole woman was supposed to be at the time. She was obsessed with her husband and family and accepted her traditional role. Edna on the other hand gave in to her desires and pursued them, she put more stock into her lover than her husband and rejected her traditional role. She was in no way the Creole ideal for a woman. In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman. The motherwomen seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle.

19. Madam Reisz is very different from Edna. The significance of their friendship is that Madam Reisz is the one who opens Ednas eyes to art and develops her greatly in expressing herself as an artist as well as a woman. She learns about expressing herself and it feels very freeing to Edna. Madam Reisz art is done via piano and she is very devoted to music, Ednas comes in the form of paintings. In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her"