The Pontellier family arrives at Grand Isle for their summer vacation at Madame Lebrun's resort cottages.

Léonce returns late from Klein's hotel, wakes Edna, and accuses her of habitually neglecting their children.

Edna opens up to Adèle on the beach, confessing her feelings of aimlessness and emotional discontent for the first time.

Mademoiselle Reisz performs piano at a Saturday night celebration, and her playing moves Edna to uncontrollable tears.

Edna swims alone in the open sea for the first time, feeling sudden control over her body and soul.

Edna refuses Léonce's command to come to bed, defying her husband openly for the first time in their marriage.

Robert announces at dinner that he is leaving for Mexico that same evening, shocking Edna who had not been told.

Back in New Orleans, Edna abandons her Tuesday receptions and devotes herself entirely to painting, neglecting all domestic duties.

Worried by Edna's erratic behavior, Léonce consults the family physician Doctor Mandelet, fearing she may have a mental illness.

Léonce departs for a business trip to New York and the children leave for the countryside, leaving Edna blissfully alone.

Edna visits Mademoiselle Reisz and discovers that Robert has been writing letters from Mexico almost entirely about Edna.

Edna and Robert reunite at Mademoiselle Reisz's apartment; he confesses he left for Mexico to forget his love for her.

Adèle, exhausted from labor, whispers to Edna to think about her children and the effect of her actions on them.

Edna returns home after Adèle's birth to find Robert has gone and left only a farewell note in his place.

Edna walks alone into the sea at Grand Isle, swimming outward until she is too exhausted to return to shore.

The Awakening follows Edna Pontellier from a comfortable but hollow life as a wife and mother through a profound transformation of self-discovery. A summer at Grand Isle ignites her emotional and physical awakening, largely through her friendship with Robert Lebrun and the freedom she observes in Creole society. When the family returns to New Orleans, Edna cannot return to who she was, and she begins dismantling every obligation imposed on her by society and her husband. She pursues painting, abandons social duties, and moves into her own small house, all while longing for Robert and engaging in a physical affair with the womanizer Alcée Arobin. Robert's eventual return and his inability to accept Edna outside of social convention, combined with Adèle's dying appeal to think of her children, leaves Edna with no path forward. She returns to Grand Isle, where her awakening began, and walks alone into the sea.

Edna Pontellier's awakening from obedient wife to independent woman.

Léonce departs for a week on business and later sends Edna an extravagant box of gourmet treats from New Orleans.

Robert confides to Edna early in the summer that he is considering leaving for Mexico in autumn to seek his fortune.

Adèle privately warns Robert that his flirtation with Edna is dangerous, since Edna is not a Creole woman who takes such attention lightly.

Robert invites Edna to join a morning boat trip to the island of Chênière Caminada for Sunday church service.

Edna feels overcome during the mass and leaves the church; Robert escorts her to Madame Antoine's cottage to rest.

Edna wakes from a deep sleep at Madame Antoine's feeling physically renewed, ravenously hungry, and newly alive to sensation.

Robert visits Edna at her guesthouse to say a personal farewell before sailing for Mexico later that same evening.

Furious after an argument with Léonce, Edna hurls her wedding ring on the floor and smashes a glass vase.

Edna's father the Colonel visits New Orleans and willingly poses as a subject for Edna's portrait sketches.

Doctor Mandelet attends dinner at the Pontellier home; Edna counters his cautionary tale with her own story of two lovers who vanish together.

Edna and Alcée Arobin attend a second horse race together alone, and Alcée kisses Edna's hand after their dinner.

Edna hosts a lavish farewell dinner at the large house for friends, revealing to guests that it is also her twenty-ninth birthday.

Alcée walks Edna to the pigeon house on her first night there and stays with her until morning.

Edna travels to Iberville to visit her sons in the countryside, enjoying a joyful week with them before returning alone to New Orleans.

Edna waits at Mademoiselle Reisz's empty apartment and is stunned when Robert himself appears at the door.

While the main arc of Edna's awakening unfolds through landmark moments, a rich layer of secondary events shapes the world around her and reveals how others respond to her transformation. Robert's early hints about Mexico, Adèle's private warning to him, and the intimate excursion to Chênière Caminada all deepen the tension of the summer at Grand Isle before it ends. Once in New Orleans, a series of smaller provocations accumulate: Edna's angry destruction of her wedding ring, a dinner where she outwits Doctor Mandelet with a story, and the gradual seduction by Alcée Arobin through horse races and shared evenings. The farewell dinner party marking her move to the pigeon house and a tender visit to her children in Iberville reveal the emotional contradictions Edna cannot resolve. The pool closes as Robert appears unexpectedly at Mademoiselle Reisz's apartment, setting the stage for the confrontation that will determine Edna's fate.

The supporting events that quietly shaped Edna's world and relationships.

Edna sits alone on the porch late at night weeping, overwhelmed by an indescribable oppression in her marriage she cannot name.

Robert devotes the entire summer to Edna as her sole attendant, treating her with a sincerity he has never shown other women.

Edna loosens her clothes at the beach while confiding in Adèle, physically shedding her outward restraint for the first time.

Robert and Edna sit together in charged silence on the porch after her first swim, experiencing the first unspoken stirrings of desire.

Edna skips her Tuesday reception entirely and wears a plain housedress; Léonce discovers her open defiance of their social obligations.

Doctor Mandelet privately suspects Edna may be in love with another man but chooses not to share this suspicion with Léonce.

Edna begins packing to move into the pigeon house, deliberately taking only her own possessions and leaving Léonce's purchases behind.

Mademoiselle Reisz warns Edna that a bird soaring above tradition must have strong wings or fall back to earth bruised and broken.

Edna tells Mademoiselle Reisz she intends to become a serious artist; Reisz warns that an artist must possess a courageous soul.

Edna confesses to Mademoiselle Reisz for the first time that she loves Robert and cannot offer a rational explanation why.

Alcée visits Edna one evening and kisses her; she responds fully for the first time, giving in to physical desire.

After their charged reunion, Edna and Robert share a stiff and ceremonious dinner at the pigeon house, their intimacy replaced by distance.

Robert confesses to Edna that he had dreamed of Léonce setting her free so that Robert could make her his wife.

Edna declares to Robert that she is no longer Léonce's possession and will give herself to whomever she chooses.

Edna lies motionless on the sofa all night without sleeping after reading Robert's farewell note, devastated and utterly alone.

Beneath the surface of Edna's story lies a chain of decisive moments where her inner life ruptures into the world around her. Her first unexplained weeping on the porch, her loosening of clothes at the beach, and the charged silence she shares with Robert after her first swim all mark stages of an awakening she cannot yet name. Once back in New Orleans, Edna's revelations accelerate through confidences shared with Mademoiselle Reisz, including her first admission that she loves Robert and her declaration of intent to live as a free woman. Her affair with Alcée, her bold move to the pigeon house, and her anguished dinners with Robert reveal how far she has come and how impossible her situation has become. The pool ends not with her death but with its emotional precondition: the night she lies motionless on the sofa, devastated by Robert's departure and finally understanding that even love cannot give her what she seeks.

The key decisions and discoveries that drove Edna's transformation to its tragic end.