Mrs. Highcamp in The Awakening

Who is Mrs. Highcamp?

Mrs. Highcamp appears as a well-connected, breezy hostess who moves easily among Grand Isle and New Orleans society. She enjoys entertaining and smoothing social interactions: she fetches Edna to races, receives guests at her home after the turf, and attends small musicales and dinners. Her presence is social lubricant — she flatters, plays hostess, and fosters light amusements. In the chapters where she appears she helps draw Edna back into public life (inviting her to the Jockey Club and dining with her), participates in the convivial small dinner that Edna gives, and shares in the casual, flirtatious atmosphere that frames encounters between Edna and younger men like Victor Lebrun and Alcée Arobin. Mrs. Highcamp never intrudes on intimate confessions; instead she circulates compliments, arranges prettiness (weaving a garland at Edna’s dinner), and contributes to the evenings that alternately buoy and unsettle Edna.

In the book: When we first meet Mrs. Highcamp, she’s a well-connected New Orleans hostess moving through the racing crowd with her daughter and a knack for charming acquaintances. She’s breezy and flattering, happily pulling Edna into a livelier circle where introductions and amusements come easily.

Personality

glib

She breezily flatters guests and easily charms acquaintances when she pulls Edna into the racing crowd (XXV).

sociable

She hosts and attends social occasions — fetching Edna for the Jockey Club and dining with the Racing set (XXV).

graceful

At Edna’s small select dinner she weaves a garland and drapes a white scarf over Victor, creating a pretty tableau (XXX).

attentive

She is present among guests and notices moods, helping to sustain the evening’s conviviality at the dinner (XXX).

Character arc

Mrs. Highcamp’s role remains steady across her appearances: she opens and sustains social opportunities for Edna but does not participate in or provoke Edna’s deeper emotional shifts. In Chapter XXIII she is part of the lively world that greets Edna and her father at the musicale, exemplifying the easy social circulation that surrounds Edna. In XXV she actively draws Edna into the racing scene and entertains afterwards, helping create the excitable environment in which Alcée Arobin and Edna share intimate gestures. In Chapter XXX she contributes to the decorous gaiety of Edna’s small dinner — arranging garlands and engaging with younger guests — and thus participates in the social theatrics that culminate in the evening’s abrupt discomposure. Mrs. Highcamp neither deepens nor diminishes in sympathy or intention; she remains a constant social presence whose actions reinforce the public, performative sphere from which Edna increasingly distances herself.

Relationships

• Edna Pontellier A convivial acquaintance and hostess who draws Edna into races and social gatherings, encouraging her public sociability.
• Alcée Arobin A fellow member of the racing and fashionable set who escorts Edna from the races; they share the same social circle.
• Mrs. Merriman A social peer who attends dinners and card evenings with Mrs. Highcamp; they circulate in the same hostess network.
• Victor Lebrun A young guest whom Mrs. Highcamp adorns playfully at Edna’s dinner, contributing to the evening’s light, flirtatious mood.
• Mademoiselle Reisz A distant, more serious acquaintance present in the same social gatherings, though Reisz remains on the margins of Mrs. Highcamp’s light entertainments.
• Madame Ratignolle A fellow hostess and member of the musical/society circle with whom Mrs. Highcamp shares soirées and social duties.

Why Mrs. Highcamp matters

Mrs. Highcamp functions as a symbol of conventional social ease and the pleasurable surface world that both sustains and distracts Edna. Her smiling hospitality and attention to pretty details help produce the public stages on which flirtation and polite performance occur. By keeping interactions light, she highlights the contrast between social spectacle and Edna’s inward unrest: Mrs. Highcamp embodies the comfortable social order that neither questions nor understands Edna’s growing disquiet and desire for autonomy.

Chapters with Mrs. Highcamp

• XXIII
• XXV
• 30
• XXXIII

More The Awakening characters

• Edna PontellierProtagonist
• Robert LebrunMajor character
• Léonce PontellierMajor character
• Adèle RatignolleMajor character
• Madame LebrunMinor character
• Mademoiselle ReiszMajor character
• Alcée ArobinMajor character
• Raoul PontellierMinor character