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 cries when Arobin leaves. She feels assailed by her husband in the form of the house around her, and by her love for Robert. The kiss makes her see the world very vividly; her only regret is that this clarity did not come from love.
Edna's waywardness is freeing, but also confusing—it suspends Edna in an empty space without rules, without principles, without any sort of certainty.
Themes
