The Awakening: Chapters 10-14

In chapters 10-14, Edna starts to come to many realizations of her life. During Edna's period of time of the realizations, it is referred to as her "awakening". Edna is so called 'moving toward an awakening' beginning in chapter 6. She starts to get the feeling that she is not who she used to be. She thinks she cannot relate to her former self. Before this feeling, Edna has the period of time that she wants to do something that she has never done before. Edna also gets this quick vision of death and has been moved by many emotions that she cannot seem to get an understanding of. This period of 'awakening' continues with Edna having dreams that are not making sense to her. It is not easy for her to tell if the dreams are telling her something or if something is going to soon happen. If something is going to happen, she still cannot tell what it is.

Robert's reaction is described as being triggered by her awakening. He has never experienced what Edna is experiencing right now. This appears to be powerful to Edna. In addition to her awakening, she is 'awakened' by noticing her interests that have never been developed such as art and music.

In this section there is reference made to water and swimming. Edna is learning how to swim, however, because she swims out to far, she is pushed out of her comfort zone. She starts panicking when she realized how far out her has went. The thing about this is that it may not be far for any other person, but for Edna she has went out too far of what she is comfortable with. This was an event that was pretty much prone to happening with her being able to control it.