Edna Pontellier's Personal Awakening Cycle

The Personal Awakening Cycle of Edna Pontellier On the surface Edna seems to have it all, the perfect life as it would be perceived by society. She has two children and a doctor for a husband. However, Edna doesn’t feel as if this completes her; instead, she enters a phase of self-discovery and a sense of finding passion again. Edna is trying to break traditional ties that claim that she should be a good mother-woman. This ultimately leads to her awakening or freedom from the life that she believes restricts her. Edna’s sense of awakening happens in stages with different aspects leading up to the final awakening. Her awakening is a cycle that is completed with many different events synching together to form a better understanding of Edna Pontellier. In a traditional society, Edna feels stuck between what is right for her and what makes society happy. She is expected to be a good wife and mother, however; she falls short of this
“Edna’s awakening progresses simultaneously with Adéle’s pregnancy; thus the structure of the novel is related to the basic, natural rhythm of the human gestation cycle” (Skaggs 89). In the beginning, Edna was similar to a child. Her mentality wasn’t as developed due to her not experiencing a lot. When she met Robert, it was as if she was a teenager falling in love for the first time. She didn’t know that it could feel like this. She had gotten married so fast that she wasn’t quite sure how love worked or felt. Edna fell in love with Robert and with this came the swell of the sea. At first, things look up as if she can be with Robert if she just fixes her life and leaves her husband for him. Although, she soon finds out that he has left for Mexico and when he comes back he leaves her again. Edna has relearned what it is like to love and then experiences the heartbreak that goes with it. She is going through the motions that she was denied by being married to