Chapter XXVII

1. Explain how the bird symbolism resurfaces in this chapter. What does it foreshadow?

Mademoiselle Reisz puts her arms around Edna to feel her shoulder blades to "see if her
wings were strong". She then remarks that "the bird that would soar above the level plain of
tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to the weaklings bruised,
exhausted, fluttering back to earth". This may foreshadow that Edna cannot rise above the
toxic culture of her time, and may very well end up killing her.

Chapter XXVIII

1. At less than one page, this is the shortest chapter in the book. What of any significance
has occurred in this short chapter?

She looks back on her kiss with Alcée. Her regret is that the kiss was purely sensational, there
was no romantic connection. It was lust, not love. In this chapter, the realization of everything
that she has done has come down upon her. She had an "overwhelming feeling of
irresponsibility". She thought about her relationship with Léonce, her relationship with Robert and
above all she understand everything.

Chapter XXIX

1. What does the fact that Edna never questions her actions indicate?

She feels that she hasn't done anything wrong.

2. How does Edna appear to be a different person now?

She becomes earnest in her freedom despite hearing the voices of disapproval that come
from disregarding her marriage vows and her husband. She packs feverishly, her caprice
and self-indulgence is at an all time high. She will escape her cage (Léonce's house) and
move to a bigger one, (the pigeon house). She will have more freedom, but will still be
constrained by societal restraints.

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 Chapter XXX

1. Some critics have likened Edna’s grand dinner party to the Last Supper as recounted in
the four Gospels. In what ways is it similar?

For Edna, this is the last supper she has before she leaves Léonce's home for "The pigeon
house", her last supper before leaving behind her ideal of womanhood, societal conventions,
and her old life entirely. Edna is also isolated during her last meal, and due to the connection of
the "Last Supper" it foreshadows that Edna will have to leave this world to find her true
fulfillment.
2. Who are the guests who attend the dinner?

Ten guests show up for Edna's dinner party: Arobin, Mademoiselle Reisz, Victor Lebrun, Mrs.
Highcamp, Monsieur Ratignolle, and a few others.

3. Who was invited but did not attend?

Madame Ratignolle and Madame Lebrun was invited but didn't attend.

4. Consider Edna’s behavior at the party. Has she become an independent woman?

She has become independent, but at the cost of command and isolation.

5. What does the following quotation indicate about the evening?

“The voices of Edna’s disbanding guests jarred like a discordant note upon the quiet
harmony of the night.”
Despite Edna's best efforts to make everything perfect (the food, the dress, the jewels, and the
guests), her desperate need to control the appearance of the party stems from her feeling of
helplessness. The guests are clumsy with their conversation, their interests don't align and no
one listens to another. The party is a failure, not a success.

6. How might this chapter turn out to be a climax to the story?

Mademoiselle Reisz has a suspicion about her affair with Alcee and tells her to "be good",
even though it's insinuated that in the next chapter they commit adultery. This scene may
also be the turning point in which Edna realizes that her independence comes at a cost.

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 Chapter XXXI

1. Why does Edna say, “I feel as if I had been wound up to a certain pitch—too tight—
and something inside of me had snapped” ?
Edna's strength and resolve had dissipated, she has used up all of it, with the party being the
breaking point.

2. In what ways is Alcée manipulating Edna?

He acts as if he is comforting her at first, but then he presses his advantages until Edna
becomes "supple to his gentle, seductive entreaties". Edna is in need of a friend but Alcee
instead uses her weak emotional state to get what he wants from her.

Chapter XXXII

1. What incidents show that Léonce is concerned more with appearances than the actual
state of things?
"He begged her to consider first, foremost, and above all else, what Poole would say... He was
simply thinking of his financial integrity".

2. How does Edna feel in her new home?

She is pleased. While she feels that she has "descended in the social scale" she feels that
she has "risen in the spiritual".

3. How does Edna’s move seem to affect her children and her relationship with them?
She's glad to see the children, she acts more mother-like; she takes the kids on trips, she
listens to their stories, and when they leave she is pained by their departure. Overall, the
move has greatly improved her relationship with the children.

4. Evaluate the statement that Edna may have fallen in her social standing but had risen
in her spiritual standing?

As far as society goes, they will look down on her for making such a move, but as for Edna
feels about it, she's more happy and independent, raising her spirits.

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 Chapter XXXIII

1. What warning does Adéle give to Edna when she visits her at the pigeon house? What
is Edna’s attitude?
She warns her to be careful since she's living alone now, and advices someone to come and
stay with her, such as Mademoiselle Reisz (implicitly, she warns Edna of the gossip
concerning her and Alcee Arobin). Edna's attitude towards her warning is indifferent, she
brushes it off as saying she wouldn't want Mademoiselle Reisz around her all the time, and
tiptoes around the subject.
2. What request does Adéle make of Edna?
She asks Edna to make a promise that she will go to her when her "hour of trial" (Adéle
giving birth) overtakes her.

3. Why is Edna upset when she sees Robert at Mademoiselle Reisz’s apartment?
He did not tell her when he was coming back, and he did not see her when he arrived
(which was two days ago), so Edna feels betrayed by Robert.

4. In this chapter, Robert is clearly linked to Edna’s awakening. Is he alone responsible for
her changed behavior and her awakening self?
Not just Robert, Alcee's behavior towards Edna has helped her Awakening as well, with Alcée
being the object that she channels her passions into.

5. What excuse does he give for not writing to Edna during his absence? Why do you
think he says this?
He thought his letters wouldn't be any interest to her. He didn't want to write to her because
he's trying to forget about her.

6. Later, during dinner at the pigeon-house, what does Edna learn is the reason for
Robert’s return? How does she feel?
He had been "working like a machine, and feeling like a lost soul" for him there was
nothing interesting. Edna responds by reciting Robert's answer word-for-word when he
asked her what she's been doing.

7. How does this chapter contribute to the unravelling of Edna’s awakening?

Robert, the main person who starts Edna's Awakening, starts to drift apart from Edna. This
is turn makes Edna become closed off from him, and the two become cold.

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 Chapter XXXIV

1. What does Alcee’s claim that he “adores” Edna establish about him? About Edna?
What does it suggest about Robert?
He doesn't love her, he just loves the idea of her, it's a relationship based on infatuation, not
love. Edna may not mind too much being an object of Alcée's adoration, but it's not a
sustainable relationship. For Robert, his reunion with Edna feels incomplete, he's cold
towards Edna, with contrasts
with Alcee's fiery passion toward Edna.
Chapter XXXV

1. What essential change occurs in Edna’s frame of mind in this chapter?

She's happy and hopeful, yet she's in denial about her failing romance with Robert.

2. What would have been the effect of the following comment in 1899 about Alcée: “He
had detected the latent sensuality, which unfolded under his delicate sense of her
nature’s requirements like a torpid, torrid, sensitive blossom”?

He would've been condemned as vulgar, due to the sexual nature of His relationship with
Edna as well as their adultery.

Chapter XXXVI

1. How is the garden in the suburbs used as a symbol in this chapter?

It stands as a symbol for Edna's isolation from society.

2. During her encounter with Robert, what does Edna realize is true about his feelings for
her? Why do you think this presents a problem for him?

He had truly loved Edna, but due to her being married, he considered it as a pipe dream,
which is why he was distant and formal with her. Robert still sees societal convention, he
does not understand how they can be together if she's still married.
3. What does Edna mean when she says that Léonce cannot free her?

She is no longer his property, she is her own person.

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 Chapter XXXVII

1. What does this childbirth episode contribute to the developing theme of the book and
to the plot?

It serves as a mirror for the own trials as tribulations of her own childbirth.

2. What does Adéle mean when she begs Edna to “think of the children”?

She tells Edna to think about how fulfilling her desires comes at the expenses of others.

Chapter XXXVIII

1. What does Edna’s conversation with Dr. Mandelet reveal about the Doctor?
He believes that motherhood is a integral and inevitable part of a woman's life. Societies
romanticization of motherhood just works to secure motherhood. This way of thinking
disregards the bad parts of motherhood (childbirth, dissatisfaction at the constraints of
motherhood). He also sees himself as much wiser than Edna, trying to offer her advice
since he sees her as young and inexperienced ("my dear child"), and that he would be
the few that understand what she's going through.
2. What is Edna’s frame of mind as she returns home?
She's pushing off the consequences, she thinks of Robert, and their love, which leaves
her intoxicated with expectancy.

3. What do you think Robert means by the note he leaves?

"I love you. Good-by—because I love you". Robert can't face the societal backlash their
relationship will have, and he feels that leaving her is the best course of action in order
to save his stature and hers.

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 Chapter XXXIX

1. How is the setting for this last chapter appropriate?

The setting for the last chapter is the beach, the place where her Awakening first
took place, and it is here that it will end.

2. What is the subject of conversation between Victor and Mariequita?

Edna's extravagant party, but really it is more of a flirtation tactic than about the
actual party; Victor attempts to make Mariequita jealous of Edna, and it works.

3. The reader learns what Edna thought during that last sleepless night following her
return from Adéle’s. What realization does she come to about herself, Léonce, her
children, and Robert?
"To-day it is Arobin; to-morrow it will be someone else. It makes no difference to me, it
doesn't matter about Leonce Pontellier—but Raoul and Etienne!" She doesn't care about
Leonce Pontellier, she would give up the inessential for her children but not herself, and
she wanted no one else to be near her except Robert.
4. How is Edna’s removal of her clothes as she walks down to the beach symbolic?

It represents the restraints of motherhood and womanhood being cast aside.

5. The lines here, about the seductive voice of the sea echo what other incidents in
the book?

This seductive voice of the sea echos back to when Edna first learned how to swim, and when
she swam too far on her first journey; this is where her Awakening first began.

6. Edna swims out too far, experiences one moment of terror, and then relaxes into the
ocean. What thoughts does Edna have now?
She thinks about her childhood, and the meadow she played in as a child. She thinks about her
husband and her children, how they were a part of her life, but they didn't own her. She thinks about
Mademoiselle Reisz, and her remarks about what it takes to be an artist.She thinks about Robert, and
how he wouldn't understand, and she thinks about how Dr. Mandelet might have understood if she'd
seen him.
7. Expalin how Chopin’s decision to have Edna end her own life is an ambiguous ending
for the book.

Chopin doesn't outright state if Edna died. She concluded the book with a description of a
childhood scene. It is unknown if Edna is victorious (blossoming into her true self, achieving
independence as best she could, evading people who held her back) or defeated
(preserving appearances by disguising her suicide for her children's sakes).

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