I have decided to write my thoughts on this new venture.  Edna is so complicated and trying at times, and I feel that I need to explore her character more fully outside of the novel.  She is in such a dreamy state at the moment.  She has no expectation of the revelation that is about to awaken her senses and change her life forever.  Oh, how I cannot wait until she emerges from this dull, conventional life of hers!  The times are ever so limiting for women!  To sit, to entertain, to raise the children, to be a model wife and mother, is all that society expects or wants for women.  Edna will surely challenge this, and hopefully awaken society and other women.

The whole island of Grand Isle is asleep during this lazy, hot summer. The sea is Edna’s retreat and comfort. At first it scared her, but now she cannot imagine life without it; much like her awakening. The sea is so calming and yet so destructive at times. Truly, it is a powerful force! I have always loved the sea, and feel at home on the seashore. There is such beauty in the water and the sunlight that reflects off the waves. It’s draw is magnetic. Edna awakens in the sea when she discovers she can swim far out into the water. Something draws her out farther, just as her awakening draws her farther from society.




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I find that music eases the creative process of writing. I believe that my dear Edna is often surrounded by music, so here is a list of music that I believe Edna would find familiar and comforting.

. Waltz No. 9 in A flat-- Frederic Chopin
. Nocturne No. 2 in E flat major-- Frederic Chopin
. Tristan und Isolde Opera-- Wagner
. Symphony No. 5 in E minor-- Tchaikivsky
. Waltz Opus 69 No. 2 in B minor-- Frederic Chopin
. Prelude to Act IV Opus 23 (Morning Mood)-- Edvard Grieg

They are two star-crossed lovers, but their love cannot happen in the confines of the current society. How bitter a realization for Edna! Her love for Robert is more than mere infatuation, and more than the feelings she has for her husband. Her marriage was a convenient, good maneuver but lacked love. How much easier it would be if Edna had never awakened and realized that she did not have everything she desired from life. Robert is part of her awakening, both beautiful and bitter. Our modern day Romeo and Juliet or Tristan and Isolde with their forbidden love.









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Ah! This is how I envision dear Adele. Edna most certainly is not the typical Victorian woman who marries blissfully and bears many children and rears them in perfect contentment. No, quite the opposite, but her dear friend, Adele certainly is the ideal of womanhood. What a remarkable woman, who handles everything with such grace! She is idolized by all, even Edna who is drawn to her. Adele is the perfect woman: beautiful, kind, delicate, maternal and endearing. She is frail and delicate, sickly like many well-to-do Victorian women with “conditions”. Adele is happy with her life, and wants nothing more than to be a doting wife and mother. She would give herself, body and soul for her children, but Edna will not. Edna is stronger than Adele in many ways. Physically, she is healthy and vivacious, and she is strong enough to say no to the defining forces in her life. Edna will not lose herself for her children. Her being is a most precious thing and the only thing that truly belongs to her, and for that it is sacred. Edna is not a model for qualities of an exceptional mother or wife. She makes mistakes, but she is a model for women to look to and see that they can change. They need not stay in the same dull and restrictive ideologies simply because it is the common thought. Edna is a modern woman, and though not perfect, that is what makes her human. She is so much more relatable than the idolized Adele, at least in my opinion. I know people will be shocked at my book; they may even reject it because Edna is so different from what women are supposed to be. I don’t care though. This is my story, and I want to see a woman like Edna, not someone perfect but someone that is real.




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Edna’s retreat and safe haven from society! How lovely, quaint and simple it is; truly a small luxury of privacy. How this house inspired me when I was trying to create Edna’s escape and home! Edna rejects the life of Leoncé and his fine, rich things for the simpler life that is all her own. She is establishing herself as her own woman and person, a separate entity from the shadow of her husband. By ridding herself of the possessions of Leoncé she can begin to define her own course in life. She is shedding one of the many layers of her former life so that she can begin anew. Maybe she will soar high now after she has left the suffocating power of society towards women. Her awakening sets her on the course for such humble beginnings: a small house, a few possessions, but also a lover that is everything she has ever wanted. Materially, she is not rich when she leaves but emotionally she has found her soul mate.




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Edna’s marriage is not a happy one, like that of her friend Adele. Before her awakening she merely goes through the motions in her dreamy stupor; however, afterwards she openly defies Leoncé. She refuses to go inside the house, she cancels her calling times so she may do as she wishes, she associates with company that is less than desirable, and she moves out of their mansion into the pigeon house. All the while Leoncé does not care about her, but rather as her as one of his beautiful possessions. He fears that she will soil his name in society, and therefore ruin his economic ventures. Truly, neither one of them married for love. Leoncé is not a horrible man, but a product of society and the times. There is no romantic love between the two, but more like a business partnership which is very fitting for Leoncé.



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