The Awakening: Reading Response 5

Pages 41-50

At first I wondered why Robert left to go to Mexico so suddenly, but then it became clear to me that his affections for Edna had grown so much that he needed to leave. His good-bye to her proved this.

One of the quotes I found most interesting and useful in this chapter was, “The past was nothing to her; offered no lesson which she was willing to heed. The future was a mystery which she never attempted to penetrate. The present alone was significant; was hers, to torture her as it was doing then with the biting conviction that she had lost that which she had held, that she had been denied that which her impassioned, newly awakened being demanded.” This quote really sums up Edna’s whole new emotion towards life, it says that the present was hers; she has really stepped up and taken control of her own life.