However, during that summer at Grand Isle, Edna Pontellier awakens, realizing that her love to Robert Lebrun is the most important matter in her life, leaving her supposed-to-be affection for Léonce and her love for Raoul and Etienne (the children) behind her back.
An important symbol in the novel, which drives Edna to self-respect and self-confidence, is the sea. Throughout the novel, it affects Edna’s life in many ways, at times acting as a comforting beacon in the night, while at others as a beckoning lover. The sea aids in her physical awakening.
In the beginning of the novel, the sea becomes a conduit through which Edna can reach Robert. The sea mysteriously calls to her, fondling her soul with its sensuous cry. Apart from Robert, it is the sea that slowly awakens. It can be observed in the scene when Edna agrees one night to swim with Robert and their friends though she has no ability to swim. Her friends tried in vain to teach her to swim, but failed. That night, however, Edna swims for the first time in her life. “She was like the little, tottering, stumbling, clutching child, who of a sudden realizes its powers, and walks for the first time alone, boldly and with over-confidence” (p. 529). She shouts for joy and is overcome with exultation.
In her state of climaxed rapture, Edna is awakened and is all at once liberated from the ties of conventional female stereotype. The physical nature of swimming is exhilarating for her, and in a sense, it is a typical example of the physical passion her life was obviously lacking. Thus, awakened to her sense of self and to the need for sexual love, she leaves the sea seeking this love in Robert Lebrun. That night after the swimming, Edna is sitting at the porch again, refusing her husband’s demand (!) to go to bed and once again she feels like who “awakens gradually out of a dream” (p. 532).
Throughout the story, Edna struggles to free herself. Her husband tries to hold Edna down, wanting her, not surprisingly, to be a mother and a housewife, though she knows she is not like that. Léonce’s oppression forces her to break free. She starts to think only about herself, while her children, her husband, her house in New Orleans, her life she had lived before, become parts of a world that is now alien to her. She does what she likes and feels what she likes. For the first time, her mind is clear and she is content. She withdraws regular tea parties at her place, forgets her acquaintances and seeks fulfillment through life’s simplicities. She is happy painting (!), or listening to classical music.
Léonce Pontellier is shocked and bewildered, and asks respectable Doctor Mandelet for help.