The 19 Best Edna Pontellier Quotes - Bookroo

BookrooBook ClubsShop BooksBook RegistrySign incharacterEdna Pontellier Quotes29 of the best book quotes from Edna Pontellier01“In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna Pontelliercharacterworldᐧawakeningᐧuniverseᐧhuman beingsconcepts02“She perceived that her will had blazed up, stubborn and resistant. She could not at that moment have done other than denied and resisted. She wondered if her husband had ever spoken to her like that before, and if she had submitted to his command. Of course she had; she remembered that she had. But she could not realize why or how she should have yielded, feeling as she then did.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna PontellierᐧLéonce Pontelliercharactersrememberᐧstubbornnessᐧresistanceconcepts03“The tears came so fast to Mrs. Pontellier’s eyes that the damp sleeve of her peignoir no longer served to dry them. She was holding the back of her chair with one hand; her loose sleeve had slipped almost to the shoulder of her uplifted arm. Turning, she thrust her face, steaming and wet, into the bend of her arm, and she went on crying there, not caring any longer to dry her face, her eyes, her arms. She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life. They seemed never before to have weighed much against the abundance of her husband’s kindness and a uniform devotion which had come to be tacit and self-understood.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna PontellierᐧLéonce Pontelliercharactersmarriageᐧtearsᐧcryingconcepts04“Edna arose, cramped from lying so long and still in the hammock. She tottered up the steps, clutching feebly at the post before passing into the house. ‘Are you coming in, Leonce?’ she asked, turning her face toward her husband. ‘Yes, dear,’ he answered, with a glance following a misty puff of smoke. ‘Just as soon as I have finished my cigar.‘”Kate ChopinauthorHusbandᐧWifepersonsThe AwakeningbookEdna PontellierᐧLéonce Pontelliercharacterscigarᐧcrampedᐧsmokeᐧmarriageconcepts05“She perceived that her will had blazed up, stubborn and resistant. She could not at that moment have done other than denied and resisted. She wondered if her husband had ever spoken to her like that before, and if she had submitted to his command. Of course she had; she remembered that she had. But she could not realize why or how she should have yielded, feeling as she then did.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna PontellierᐧLéonce Pontelliercharacters06“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.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna Pontelliercharactersufferingᐧdreamsconcepts07“The pigeon-house pleased her. It at once assumed the intimate character of a home, while she herself invested it with a charm which it reflected like a warm glow. There was with her a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual. Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. She began to look with her own eyes; to see and to apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life. No longer was she content to ‘feed upon opinion’ when her own soul had invited her.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna Pontelliercharacterspiritualityᐧobligationsᐧsocialismconcepts08“She turned back into the room and began to walk to and fro down its whole length, without stopping, without resting. She carried in her hands a thin handkerchief, which she tore into ribbons, rolled into a ball, and flung from her. Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying there, she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it. But her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the little glittering circlet. In a sweeping passion she seized a glass vase from the table and flung it upon the tiles of the hearth. She wanted to destroy something. The crash and clatter were what she wanted to hear.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna Pontelliercharacterfrustrationᐧwedding ringᐧdestructionconcepts09“She was seeking herself and finding herself in just such sweet, half-darkness which met her moods. But the voices were not soothing that came to her from the darkness and the sky above and the stars. They jeered and sounded mournful notes without promise, devoid even of hope.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna Pontelliercharacterfinding answersᐧdarknessᐧmournfulconcepts10“In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman. The mother-women seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels.”Kate ChopinauthorHusbandpersonThe AwakeningbookEdna Pontelliercharactermothersᐧfamilyᐧprotectingᐧangelsconcepts11“There was something in her attitude, in her whole appearance when she leaned her head against the high-backed chair and spread her arms, which suggested the regal woman, the one who rules, who looks on, who stands alone.”Kate ChopinauthorRulerspersonThe AwakeningbookEdna Pontelliercharacterattitudeᐧappearancesᐧstands aloneconcepts12“It sometimes entered Mr. Pontellier’s mind to wonder if his wife were not growing a little unbalanced mentally. He could see plainly that she was not herself. That is, he could not see that she was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we would assume like a garment with which to appear before the world.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna PontellierᐧLéonce Pontelliercharactersmental healthᐧawakeningconcepts13“A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul. She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna Pontelliercharacterpowerᐧcontrolᐧswimᐧdaringᐧstrengthconcepts14“Her husband seemed to her now like a person whom she had married without love as an excuse.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookLéonce PontellierᐧEdna Pontelliercharactersunhappy marriagesᐧloveᐧmarriageconcepts15“Mrs. Pontellier had brought her sketching materials, which she sometimes dabbled with in an un-professional way. She liked the dabbling. She felt in it a satisfaction of a kind which no other employment afforded her.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna Pontelliercharacterdabbleᐧdrawing artᐧsatisfactionconcepts16“Edna spent an hour or two in looking over some of her old sketches. She could see their shortcomings and defects, which were glaring in her eyes. She tried to work a little, but found she was not in the humor. Finally she gathered together a few of the sketches--those which she considered the least discreditable; and she carried them with her when, a little later, she dressed and left the house.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna Pontelliercharacterdrawing artᐧshortcomingsconcepts17“I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself. I can’t make it more clear; it’s only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna Pontelliercharactergive upᐧchildrenconcepts18“She was fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way. She would sometimes gather them passionately to her heart; she would sometimes forget them. The year before they had spent part of the summer with their grandmother Pontellier in Iberville. Feeling secure regarding their happiness and welfare, she did not miss them except with an occasional intense longing. Their absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admit this, even to herself. It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna Pontelliercharacterfamilyᐧsummerᐧresponsibilityconcepts19“Edna was what she herself called very fond of music. Musical strains, well rendered, had a way of evoking pictures in her mind. She sometimes liked to sit in the room of mornings when Madame Ratignolle played or practiced. One piece which that lady played Edna had entitled “Solitude.” It was a short, plaintive, minor strain.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookAdele RatignolleᐧEdna Pontelliercharactersmusicconcept20“First of all, the sight of the water stretching so far away, those motionless sails against the blue sky, made a delicious picture that I just wanted to sit and look at.Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna PontelliercharacterwaterᐧsailingᐧskyᐧimaginationconceptsSource: Chapter 1, Paragraph 10821“I’d give it all to you, the pirate gold and every bit of treasure we could dig up. I think you would know how to spend it. Pirate gold isn’t a thing to be hoarded or utilized. It is something to squander and throw to the four winds, for the fun of seeing the golden specks fly.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna PontelliercharactergoldᐧtreasuresᐧsquanderingᐧspendingconceptsSource: Chapter 1, Paragraph 30222“But can’t you understand? I’ve grown used to seeing you, to having you with me all the time, and your action seems unfriendly, even unkind. You don’t even offer an excuse for it. Why, I was planning to be together, thinking of how pleasant it would be to see you in the city next winter.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna Pontelliercharacterunfriendlyᐧgood companyᐧunkindᐧget used toconceptsSource: Chapter 1, Paragraph 39923“She’s got some sort of notion in her head concerning the eternal rights of women; and—you understand—we meet in the morning at the breakfast table.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookLéonce PontellierᐧEdna Pontelliercharactersideasᐧwomen's rightsconceptsSource: Chapter 1, Paragraph 57724“It’s a pity Mr. Pontellier doesn’t stay home more in the evenings. I think you would be more—well, if you don’t mind my saying it—more united, if he did. ‘Oh! dear no!’ said Edna, with a blank look in her eyes. “What should I do if he stayed home? We wouldn’t have anything to say to each other.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna PontellierᐧAdele RatignolleᐧLéonce Pontelliercharacterslack of communicationᐧstaying homeᐧhusband and wifeconceptsSource: Chapter 1, Paragraph 60625“I always feel so sorry for women who don’t like to walk; they miss so much—so many rare little glimpses of life And we women learn so little of life on the whole.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna Pontelliercharacterfeeling sorry for someoneᐧwomenᐧwalkingᐧmissing outᐧseeing the worldconceptsSource: Chapter 1, Paragraph 96926“Why? Because you were not free; you were Leonce Pontellier’ s wife. I couldn’t help loving you if you were ten times his wife; but so long as I went away from you and kept away I could help telling you so.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookRobert LebrunᐧEdna Pontelliercharactersmarriageᐧloveᐧstaying awayconceptsSource: Chapter 1, Paragraph 98227“You have been a very, very foolish boy, wasting your time dreaming of impossible things when you speak of Mr. Pontellier setting me free! I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’ s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose. If he were to say, ‘Here, Robert, take her and be happy; she is yours,’ I should laugh at you both.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna PontelliercharacterfoolishnessᐧownershipᐧindependenceᐧchoosingconceptsSource: Chapter 1, Paragraph 99528“I love you,” she whispered, “only you; no one but you. It was you who awoke me last summer out of a life-long, stupid dream. Oh! you have made me so unhappy with your indifference. Oh! I have suffered, suffered! Now you are here we shall love each other, my Robert. We shall be everything to each other. Nothing else in the world is of any consequence.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna PontellierᐧRobert LebruncharactersawakeningᐧloveᐧdreamsconceptsSource: Chapter 1, Paragraph 100229“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.”Kate ChopinauthorThe AwakeningbookEdna Pontelliercharacterpassing of timeᐧwaking upᐧdreamsᐧillusionsᐧrealityconceptsSource: Chapter 1, Paragraph 1026

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Edna PontellierLéonce PontellierAdele RatignolleRobert LebrunMademoiselle ReiszDoctor MandeletDesiree AubignyMrs. Barodaworldawakeninguniversehuman beingsrememberstubbornnessresistancemarriagetearscryingcigarcrampedsmokesufferingdreamsspiritualityobligationssocialismfrustrationwedding ringdestructionfinding answersdarknessmournfulmothersfamilyprotectingangelsattitudeappearancesstands alonemental healthpowercontrolswimdaringstrengthunhappy marriageslovedabbledrawing artsatisfactionshortcomingsgive upchildrensummerresponsibilitymusicwatersailingskyimaginationgoldtreasuressquanderingspendingunfriendlygood companyunkindget used toideaswomen's rightslack of communicationstaying homehusband and wifefeeling sorry for someonewomenwalkingmissing outseeing the worldstaying awayfoolishnessownershipindependencechoosingpassing of timewaking upillusionsrealityView All Quotes

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