The Awakening: Chapters 27–39

by Kate Chopin
When Edna Pontellier meets Robert Lebrun, she begins to question her roles as wife and mother. Set in New Orleans in the late 1800s, this pioneering novel is considered to be an early feminist classic. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–8, Chapters 9–15, Chapters 16–26, Chapters 27–39
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. acquiesce
    agree or express agreement
    “Don’t you know the weather prophet has told us we shall see the sun pretty soon?”
    “Well, that ought to be reason enough,” he acquiesced.
  2. irrelevant
    having no bearing on or connection with the subject at issue
    “No; I shan’t tell you anything of the sort, though I shouldn’t be lying if I did.”
    “Do you know Mademoiselle Reisz?” she asked irrelevantly.
  3. abode
    housing that someone is living in
    Early upon the morning following those hours passed in Arobin’s society, Edna set about securing her new abode and hurrying her arrangements for occupying it.
  4. meager
    deficient in amount or quality or extent
    Whatever was her own in the house, everything which she had acquired aside from her husband’s bounty, she caused to be transported to the other house, supplying simple and meager deficiencies from her own resources.
  5. languish
    experience prolonged suffering in an unpleasant situation or place
    If he had expected to find her languishing, reproachful, or indulging in sentimental tears, he must have been greatly surprised.
  6. mirth
    great merriment
    Ellen brought him one of her dust-caps, and went into contortions of mirth, which she found it impossible to control, when she saw him put it on before the mirror as grotesquely as he could.
  7. coup d'etat
    a sudden and decisive change of government by force
    “What about the dinner?” he asked; “the grand event, the coup d’état?”
  8. plumb
    exactly vertical
    Arobin had put on his coat, and he stood before her and asked if his cravat was plumb.
  9. witticism
    a message whose ingenuity has the power to evoke laughter
    There were Mr. and Mrs. Merriman, a pretty, vivacious little woman in the thirties; her husband, a jovial fellow, something of a shallow-pate, who laughed a good deal at other people’s witticisms, and had thereby made himself extremely popular.
  10. sally
    witty remark
    Mr. Merriman’s laugh at this sally was such a genuine outburst and so contagious that it started the dinner with an agreeable swing that never slackened.
  11. shingle
    a small signboard outside the office of a lawyer or doctor
    The young man admitted that Laitner was a warm personal friend, who permitted Arobin’s name to decorate the firm’s letterheads and to appear upon a shingle that graced Perdido Street.
  12. voluble
    marked by a ready flow of speech
    Mrs. Highcamp hung with languid but unaffected interest upon the warm and impetuous volubility of her left-hand neighbor, Victor Lebrun.
  13. myriad
    too numerous to be counted
    There was a soft fall of lace encircling her shoulders. It was the color of her skin, without the glow, the myriad living tints that one may sometimes discover in vibrant flesh.
  14. volition
    the act of making a choice
    But as she sat there amid her guests, she felt the old ennui overtaking her; the hopelessness which so often assailed her, which came upon her like an obsession, like something extraneous, independent of volition.
  15. allay
    lessen the intensity of or calm
    She was bien souffrante, and she was filled with vague dread, which only her husband’s presence could allay.
  16. reiterate
    say, state, or perform again
    “Well?” questioned Arobin, who had remained with Edna after the others had departed.
    “Well,” she reiterated, and stood up, stretching her arms, and feeling the need to relax her muscles after having been so long seated.
  17. ensconce
    fix firmly
    Back in the yard was a room for servants, in which old Celestine had been ensconced.
  18. sumptuous
    rich and superior in quality
    Furthermore, in one of the daily papers appeared a brief notice to the effect that Mr. and Mrs. Pontellier were contemplating a summer sojourn abroad, and that their handsome residence on Esplanade Street was undergoing sumptuous alterations, and would not be ready for occupancy until their return.
  19. balk
    refuse to proceed or comply
    Edna admired the skill of his maneuver, and avoided any occasion to balk his intentions.
  20. ruddy
    inclined to a healthy reddish color
    How glad she was to see the children! She wept for very pleasure when she felt their little arms clasping her; their hard, ruddy cheeks pressed against her own glowing cheeks.
  21. foreboding
    a feeling of evil to come
    Were there any boys next door? Raoul, with pessimistic foreboding, was convinced that there were only girls next door.
  22. thoroughfare
    a public road from one place to another
    Madame Ratignolle had dragged herself over, avoiding the too public thoroughfares, she said.
  23. imprudent
    not sensible, responsible, or wise
    I shan’t be able to come back and see you; it was very, very imprudent to-day.
  24. asunder
    into parts or pieces
    Part of the distance they rode in the car, and after disembarking, passed the Pontellier mansion, which looked broken and half torn asunder.
  25. delicacy
    something considered choice to eat
    The dinner was of ordinary quality, except for the few delicacies which she had sent out to purchase.
  26. patois
    a characteristic language of a particular group
    Old Celestine, with a bandana tignon twisted about her head, hobbled in and out, taking a personal interest in everything; and she lingered occasionally to talk patois with Robert, whom she had known as a boy.
  27. impart
    transmit, as knowledge or a skill
    “I am always less fortunate than Robert. Has he been imparting tender confidences?”
  28. reverie
    an abstracted state of absorption
    She stayed alone in a kind of reverie—a sort of stupor.
  29. insurmountable
    not capable of being overcome
    She recapitulated the motives which no doubt explained Robert’s reserve. They were not insurmountable; they would not hold if he really loved her; they could not hold against her own passion, which he must come to realize in time.
  30. evasive
    deliberately vague or ambiguous
    She answered her husband with friendly evasiveness,—not with any fixed design to mislead him, only because all sense of reality had gone out of her life; she had abandoned herself to Fate, and awaited the consequences with indifference.
  31. latent
    potentially existing but not presently evident or realized
    He had detected the latent sensuality, which unfolded under his delicate sense of her nature’s requirements like a torpid, torrid, sensitive blossom.
  32. torpid
    in a condition of biological rest or suspended animation
    He had detected the latent sensuality, which unfolded under his delicate sense of her nature’s requirements like a torpid, torrid, sensitive blossom.
  33. providence
    the guardianship and control exercised by a deity
    But her resolve melted when she saw him before designing Providence had led him into her path.
  34. subterfuge
    something intended to misrepresent the nature of an activity
    “Why are you so personal, Mrs. Pontellier? Why do you force me to idiotic subterfuges?” he exclaimed with sudden warmth. “I suppose there’s no use telling you I’ve been very busy, or that I’ve been sick, or that I’ve been to see you and not found you at home. Please let me off with any one of these excuses.”
  35. enthrall
    hold spellbound
    Her seductive voice, together with his great love for her, had enthralled his senses, had deprived him of every impulse but the longing to hold her and keep her.
  36. haggard
    showing the wearing effects of overwork or care or suffering
    Her face was drawn and pinched, her sweet blue eyes haggard and unnatural.
  37. arbitrary
    based on or subject to individual discretion or preference
    And Nature takes no account of moral consequences, of arbitrary conditions which we create, and which we feel obliged to maintain at any cost.
  38. dupe
    a person who is easily tricked or swindled
    “The years that are gone seem like dreams—if one might go on sleeping and dreaming—but to wake up and find—oh! well! perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life.”
  39. veritable
    being truly so called; real or genuine
    She was never tired of hearing Victor describe the dinner at Mrs. Pontellier’s. He exaggerated every detail, making it appear a veritable Lucullean feast.
  40. rendezvous
    a date or meeting with a love interest
    Beholding Mrs. Pontellier make her appearance, the girl had at once suspected a lovers’ rendezvous.
Created on Wed Feb 13 17:40:25 EST 2013 (updated Thu Jul 27 10:19:35 EDT 2023)

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