14 quotes
Looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of property which has suffered some damage.
The Awakening (1899)
As she swam she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself.
The Awakening (1899)
"And Nature takes no account of moral consequences, of arbitrary conditions which we create, and which we feel obliged to maintain at any cost."
The Awakening (1899)
Edna wondered if they had all gone mad, to be talking and clamoring at that rate. She herself could think of nothing to say about Mexico or the Mexicans.
The Awakening (1899)
All sense of reality had gone out of her life; she had abandoned herself to fate, and awaited the consequences with indifference.
The Awakening (1899)
The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.
The Awakening (1899)
There was no despondency when she fell asleep that night; nor was there hope when she awoke in the morning.
The Awakening (1899)
She had resolved never again to belong to another than herself.
The Awakening (1899)
She was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world.
The Awakening (1899)
"The bird that would soar above the plane of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth."
The Awakening (1899)
Sometimes I feel this summer as if I were walking through the green meadow again; idly, aimlessly, unthinking, and unguided.
The Awakening (1899)
She could only realize that she herself — her present self — was in some way different from the other self. That she was seeing with different eyes.
The Awakening (1899)
An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her with a vague anguish...like a shadow... a mist passing across her soul's summer day.
The Awakening (1899)
"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 ones life."
The Awakening (1899)