Chapter XXXV — Summary

Plot Summary

Chapter XXXV of The Awakening opens on a morning suffused with sunlight and optimism. Edna Pontellier wakes convinced that Robert Lebrun truly loves her and that his reserve the previous evening was caused by surmountable obstacles—Creole propriety, the sanctity of her marriage, perhaps simple timidity. She replays his daily routine in her imagination, picturing him walking to work, bending over his desk, eating lunch, and possibly watching for her on the street. She resolves to be patient rather than force a confession.

The Three Letters

The morning post brings three letters that together map the competing claims on Edna’s life. Her young son Raoul sends a charming, childish note asking for bonbons and reporting that ten tiny white pigs have appeared beside Lidie’s big white pig. Léonce Pontellier writes to announce his early return in March and the European tour he has long promised, now funded by profitable Wall Street speculations. Finally, Alcée Arobin sends a midnight note from his club professing his devotion and hoping she returns it “in some faintest manner.” All three letters please Edna, yet she responds to each very differently: cheerfully to the children, with “friendly evasiveness” to her husband, and not at all to Arobin—she stuffs his note under Celestine’s stove-lid.

Art, Anticipation, and Disappointment

Edna throws herself into painting for several hours with renewed spirit. A picture dealer visits and asks whether she truly plans to study in Paris; she replies that she “possibly might,” and he commissions Parisian studies for the December holiday trade. The business conversation hints at a professional life that could exist independent of marriage or romance. Yet the day ends without Robert’s visit, and he fails to appear the next day or the day after that. Each morning Edna wakes with hope; each night she succumbs to despondency. Though tempted to seek Robert out, she disciplines herself to avoid any place—Mademoiselle Reisz’s rooms, Madame Lebrun’s house—where she might encounter him.

Arobin and the Closing Image

One evening Arobin persuades Edna to drive with him along the Shell Road to the lake. His horses are spirited and “even a little unmanageable,” and Edna enjoys the rapid, reckless speed. They return to her dining room for an early supper, and Arobin stays late. Kate Chopin observes that Arobin’s interest is becoming “more than a passing whim”: he has “detected the latent sensuality” in Edna, which unfolds under his attention “like a torpid, torrid, sensitive blossom.” The chapter closes with a devastating symmetry—“There was no despondency when she fell asleep that night; nor was there hope when she awoke in the morning”—signaling that Arobin’s physical comfort has replaced emotional longing with numbness, moving Edna further from both suffering and genuine connection.