The Awakening Post #1

One question that often comes up about Mrs. Pontellier is does she love her husband and her children. This question arises early in the book and is already one of the main conflicts. In one of the first scenes in The Awakening, Mrs. Pontellier comes walking towards the house laughing with a man named Robert Lebrun. Instead of spending the time with her husband and kids, she chose to travel outside the house with Lebrun and possibly even outside the marriage. "Each was interested in what the other said." (Chopin 5) Mrs. Pontellier spent more quality time with Lebrun then with her own husband. There is barely any dialogue exchanged between the two spouses in the whole first three chapters.

Mrs. Pontellier does not seem overly fond of her own children either. "He reapproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children." (Chopin 7) Mrs. Pontellier didn't even seem concerned when Mr. Pontellier had mentioned her son being feverish. Even when something important came up with her son Raoul, she seemed uninterested and uninvolved. Mrs. Pontellier is starting to look like she doesn't want to be part of her own family.