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Chapter 34
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Awakening, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Convention and Individuality
Women’s Rights, Femininity, and Motherhood
Realism and Romanticism
Action and Reflection
Freedom and Emptiness
Summary
Analysis
Edna feels a renewed cheerfulness the next morning, and thinks with pleasure of her future friendship with Robert. She receives letters from her son, her husband, and Arobin. She answers her husband, who had written to say he would take her on a long trip abroad, and promises to send the children candy. She paints energetically.
The warmth of Robert’s visit cheers Edna, and allows her to more energetically engage with the social world, including her husband and children. It also fuels her painting, the expression of her inner self.
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
She is sad that Robert does not come to see her that day, nor any other day. She always hopes that he might come, but eventually she gives up expecting him. She lets Arobin take her out and receives his attentions with indifference.
In the absence of social conventions, Edna has no framework, no moral code, to live by. She dwells in something like emptiness, punctuated occasionally with strong feelings. Her awakening has freed her, but the restrictive social conventions of New Orleans society give her no place to land, no place to be herself in the wider world.
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
