The Awakening, Ch. 10-14

In the next four chapters of The Awakening, we see how Edna becomes “awakened”, although no fully. She begins to rebel against her husband and become independent. Edna is not sure what direction she is moving toward, but she knows she’s going somewhere. She is also looking at things in a different way, although she doesn’t understand why things have changed. For example, Edna is unable to relate to her former self submitting to her husband. She also has a vision of death in the ocean and is unable to sleep at night.

Robert triggers Edna beginning to become awaken. She begins to fall for him and enjoys the attention he gives her. Because of her previous romantic history of people not being interested in her who she likes, this mutual attraction is very new to her. She now feels Robert is interested in her – and this is totally unlike her husband. What I mean by that is while her husband does give her gifts and care for her, he is not really interested in spending time with Edna. (Neither of them are at fault, though, as they simply don’t have that kind of relationship.) And so, because of the chemistry Edna and Robert have together he entrances her.