Awakening

During Robert’s absence in Mexico, Edna was determined to carve out a new life by herself while awaiting his return. She followed the guidance of her mentor Mademoiselle Reisz, a pianist who lives independently from and is therefore scorned by the Creole society that she lives within. Reisz inspired Edna’s love for drawing and her passion for being independent of her husband. It is because of Edna’s emulation of Reisz and her infatuation for Robert that she took her final plunge past the point of return: she moves into her own house. It is a small house which she planned on paying for with her winnings at the track and her proceeds from her art and only brought possessions that were not bought by LÐ"©once. This finalized her separation from him and it is only furthered when she refused to go on vacation with him. After her physical separation was complete, her sexual separation occurred with her affair with AlcÐ"©e. Since she had openly dissented from the Creole society, she had outcast herself from it and gossip had begun about her and AlcÐ"©e’s visits. “…Some one was talking of AlcÐ"©e Arobin visiting you” (Chopin 130). This line is amongst AdÐ"©le’s reproach of Edna’s current lifestyle and to request for her to try and regain some of her reputation by rejoining the social order.

After finally shedding of the restrictions of the Creole society, she is ready to begin her new life when Robert arrives. Her idealized romance with him is nothing short of disillusioned fantasy that she had been constructing in her mind during his absence. Furthermore, his acceptance of the conventions of society prevents anything from ever happening between Edna and Robert. Afterwards, Edna realizes she will never truly escape the Creole society that she has lived within for so long, but she also understands that she can never go back to the way the she had lived previously. Not only has she undergone an irreversible transformation, she had also alienated herself physically and socially from the society by moving out of her house and taking up a love affair amongst other questionable practices.

The final stage of the path to Edna’s suicide is her finally feeling the isolation of her self-exile. She expected Robert to fill the void of loneliness in her life until she realized that he did not understand her and that he was still bound by the laws of society. The only way to fill the emptiness was through the lust of her affair with AlcÐ"©e