The Awakening Characters

(Click the character infographic to download.) Edna has her hands full looking for love and romance. She’s got a husband and not one, but two lovers. This seems excessive. And it seems shocking...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Ah, Robert, you good-looking lover of married women. What do we have to say about you? Let’s see…Robert is handsome, charming, and seems to have f...

A Man of His TimeBy the standards of his day, Leonce Pontellier is the perfect husband. This guy makes a good living and is a popular figure in society. He gives Edna plenty of money, indulges her...

Perfect 1950's—Er, Make That 1890's—HousewifeAdele is Edna’s close friend and almost complete opposite. As the supreme example of a "mother-woman," Adele represents the ideal that Edna is sup...

A pianist of extraordinary skill, Mademoiselle Reisz is an odd duck in society due to her homely and unfashionable appearance, as well as her lack of a husband. She is most responsible for Edna’s...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Mothers, lock up your daughters. Alcee Arobin has a well-deserved playboy reputation, and he introduces Edna to various physical pleasures that Chopin...

Doctor Mandelet is the Pontellier family physician who is surprisingly perceptive as to the real causes of Edna’s strange behavior—he's pretty sure that her heart is elsewhere.

We see these lovebirds on Grand Isle, but they remain nameless and faceless. The two lovers are characterized only by their various sweet and romantic actions. They seem joined at the hip and, stra...

Another vacationer on Grand Isle, the lady in black follows the young lovers around with patient, resigned solitude. She’s depressing, and functions largely to remind us that young love doesn’t...