The Awakening XXXVII Summary

Summary

Edna stops at the drug store where Monsieur Ratignolle is preparing a mixture for his wife, Madame Ratignolle (Adèle), who is in labor. The household is anxious: a nurse who lives far away has been helping at night, Dr. Mandelet has been coming and going, and Adèle’s sister could not arrive from the plantation. Edna goes upstairs by a private stair to the apartments where she finds Adèle in the salon, exhausted and distressed, clutching a handkerchief and with her long braid lying like a "golden serpent" on the pillow. A cheerful Griffe nurse named Joséphine tries to comfort her and insists the doctor has arrived, while Adèle laments delays and fears abandonment.

Edna feels a mounting unease as she watches Adèle’s suffering. Dr. Mandelet arrives and pays little heed to Adèle’s reproaches; he expects this behavior in such moments. Adèle clings to Edna and refuses to let her leave; she talks between sharp pains to take her mind off them. Edna experiences a creeping sense of dread and recalls her own recent experience of childbirth only faintly—an "ecstasy of pain," the smell of chloroform, a stupor, and the arrival of new life. Though inwardly revolting against Nature and tempted to invent an excuse to leave, Edna remains. When she leans over to kiss Adèle and say good-bye, Adèle, worn out, presses Edna’s cheek and whispers a final, exhorting plea: "Think of the children, Edna. Oh think of the children! Remember them!"

Key events

1. Edna visits the drug store and finds Monsieur Ratignolle preparing a mixture.
2. She takes a private stair to the apartments and discovers Adèle in the salon, exhausted and in labor.
3. The nurse Joséphine tries to soothe Adèle and insists the doctor has arrived.
4. Dr. Mandelet appears and is unmoved by Adèle’s reproaches; Edna feels uneasy and recalls her own childbirth.
5. Adèle clings to Edna, and before Edna leaves she kisses her and hears Adèle’s plea to remember the children.

Analysis

This chapter functions as a concentrated, intimate scene that reveals side-by-side responses to childbirth and maternal duty. Through Edna’s presence at Adèle’s bedside, Chopin contrasts Adèle’s conventional, self-sacrificing maternal identity with Edna’s ambivalent, inwardly rebellious stance. The narrative focalization shifts subtly into Edna’s interior: she observes, remembers, and experiences a "vague dread" and a "flaming, outspoken revolt against the ways of Nature." This thought moment deepens Edna’s ongoing crisis about role and identity without explicit declaration.

Symbolically, Adèle’s long braid coiled "like a golden serpent" and the repeated references to handkerchiefs, sweat, and cologne underline physicality and ritual: birth as both biological ordeal and socially managed performance. Dr. Mandelet’s practiced calm and Adèle’s reproaches show the gendered expectations and supports that surround motherhood—comforting nurse, steady doctor, and dutiful friends. The whispered injunction, "Think of the children," performs thematic work: it is both a plea and a societal command that pressures women into prioritizing maternal duties, and it resonates against Edna’s inner resistance. Structurally, the chapter is a short but pivotal pause that reframes Edna’s emotional trajectory by reminding the reader of the societal anchor—motherhood—she is beginning to question.

Important quotes

“She recalled faintly an ecstasy of pain, the heavy odor of chloroform, a stupor which had deadened sensation, and an awakening to find a little new life to which she had given being, added to the great unnumbered multitude of souls that come and go.”

NarratorEdna's memory of her own childbirth surfaces here, blending sensation and emotional detachment and highlighting her complicated relation to motherhood.

“Think of the children, Edna. Oh think of the children! Remember them!”

Adèle RatignolleAdèle, exhausted and anxious, whispers this plea to Edna as a final exhortation; it encapsulates the social imperative of maternal duty that bears on Edna.

Characters in XXXVII

• Edna Pontellier
• Adèle Ratignolle
• Monsieur Ratignolle
• Doctor Mandelet
• Joséphine (the nurse)
• The nurse (Griffe woman)
• The children