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Chapter 11
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 sleeps very badly; early that morning, when others are sleeping or in church, she sends a servant girl to get Robert—a liberty she had never taken before. They eat a quick breakfast and go to mass by boat with several others. The lady in black appears once again, praying and feverishly counting her beads. Robert talks to Mariequita, a Spanish girl he is friends with (and with whom he had perhaps been romantically entangled). He invites Edna to go to Grand Terre, a romantic nearby island, and she jokingly accepts.
Just as she begins to disobey men, Edna begins to ignore social conventions restricting her relationships. Robert’s flirtatious friendship with Mariequita suggests that he, too, is willing to ignore conventions. He welcomes Edna’s new freedom and reciprocates her advances. Their romance becomes possible outside convention. The lady in black appears once again, shrunken and dried by the rules Edna and Robert ignore.
Themes
Literary Devices
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