The Awakening

It is the late 1800s, and Edna Pontellier is a wealthy married woman vacationing with her family in Grand Isle, a popular resort island frequented by the high society of New Orleans. Her husband is dedicated to his work, leaving Edna to spend much of her days with a married Creole woman named Adele Ratignolle whose unreserved manner begins to prompt Edna to explore her own repressed emotions and desires. Her "awakening" continues when she meets Robert Lebrun, a handsome man whose attention and affection inspire Edna's self-discovery. She returns home a changed woman, no longer interested in obedience and social obligations as she fully embraces her own independence.

The Awakening is one of the first examinations of female infidelity and is a case-study of 19th-century feminism.

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