Summary Some days later, when Edna arrives in the dining hall for dinner, she is shocked to learn that Robert is leaving that night for Mexico. After dinner, she returns alone to her cottage, upset. Robert stops at her cottage on his way to the dock. Edna chastises him for […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 15Summary and Analysis Chapters 12-14
Summary After a brief and fitful sleep, Edna awakens with an impulsive desire to attend church. She summons Robert to accompany her. On the ferry ride to the Cheniere, Robert chats briefly with a Spanish girl named Mariequita, who relays gossip about a local Spanish man who runs away with […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapters 12-14Summary and Analysis Chapters 9-11
Summary After dinner one Saturday night, the vacationers attend an impromptu children’s musical recital, and the adults dance to Madame Ratignolle’s piano playing. Robert tells Edna that Mademoiselle Reisz will perform a piece at Edna’s request. Although Mademoiselle Reisz is generally bad-tempered and unwilling to freely display her talents, she […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapters 9-11Summary and Analysis Chapters 7-8
Summary In Chapter 7, Edna and Madame Ratignolle walk to the beach and sit on the porch of their adjoining beach houses. Edna confides to Madame Ratignolle much of her past history of infatuation with unattainable men. They are interrupted by Robert approaching with their children. Edna joins the children […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapters 7-8Summary and Analysis Chapter 6
Summary This purely expository chapter clearly foreshadows Edna’s death and establishes its cause as the process of self-discovery which she has just begun, a process facilitated by her contact with the warm Gulf waters. She is starting to understand the limitations of and feel constrained by the expectations of her […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 6Summary and Analysis Chapter 5
Summary As Madame Ratignolle sews the children’s winter garments, Edna sketches her and chats with Robert. After Edna has completed the sketch, Madame Ratignolle claims to feel a fainting spell coming on; Edna and Robert quickly respond by fanning her and spritzing her with cologne. Recovering speedily, Madame Ratignolle returns […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 5Summary and Analysis Chapter 4
Summary Madame Ratignolle is introduced in this chapter as the embodiment of the “mother-women,” the Creole wives who always place husband and children before themselves. Because Edna’s behavior and attitudes differ from the mother-women’s, Leonce sometimes doubts Edna’s devotion to her children. Madame Ratignolle, sewing winter garments for her children, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 4Summary and Analysis Chapter 3
Summary That night when Leonce returns from Klein’s hotel, cheerful and talkative, Edna is already asleep. His entrance wakes her and he tries to elicit responses to his gossip despite her sleepiness. Checking on the sleeping boys, he reports to Edna that Raoul has a fever and compels her to […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 3Summary and Analysis Chapter 2
Summary As Edna and Robert continue chatting on the porch of the Pontelliers’ cottage, they reveal more of their backgrounds and personalities. Robert has long had youthful intentions of going to Mexico to seek his fortune but has yet to follow through and so remains at his modest job in […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 2Summary and Analysis Chapter 1
Summary The novel opens with Leonce Pontellier, a vacationer on Grand Isle (which is just off the coast of New Orleans), reading a newspaper and surveying his surroundings. He is annoyed by a caged parrot loudly repeating its stock phrases, and so leaves the main building of the pension (boardinghouse) […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 1