The Awakening Debriefing Project

1. The Awakening Debriefing Project Chapter 11 Abigail Castillo, Rieza Lopez, Jeffry Tan and Jenice Lyla Walford

2. Motifs The House • Houses are mentioned multiple times throughout the story. Edna and Leonce's house is where the "true woman" values are kept, and by her not wanting to go inside she is ignoring those values.

3. Symbols Wine • The drinking/declining of drinking it.

4. Tone Tense • Edna is being rebellious towards her husband creating tension between them.

5. Setting Outside of the house.

6. Edna's Disposition Edna is a respectable woman of the late 1800's who breaks through the role appointed to her by society.

7. Edna's Relationships Edna's relationship with Leonce is like a father and daughter relationship, similar to Othello and Desdemona's relationship. Leonce is trying to make Edna go to bed, which is something Othello tried to do to Desdemona as well. Her relationship with Leonce is also similar to the relationship of John and the protagonist in The Yellow Wallpaper. John was trying to make her stay in the house, confined in her bedroom and have her do nothing but sleep.

8. Jenice's Quote and Description "She tottered up the steps, clutching feebly at the post before passing into the house. 'Are you coming Leonce?' she asked... 'Just as soon as I have finished my cigar.'" In this chapter, Edna is going against her husband Leonce, which creates a cat-and-mouse game of authority, and who holds it. As Edna keeps refusing to go to inside to bed, she keeps downplaying the authority that a husband "should" have over his wife. Edna does as she wishes and lays outside in her hammock, but ultimately loses the battle of authority because she goes inside before Leonce, obeying his command. Also, when Edna goes inside she is described as "feeble," showing her not only mental, but physical weakness to disobey her husband. Something else that also displays Leonce's power over Edna is that as she walks into the house, asking him to come in, he is leisurely smoking a cigar.

9. Abby's Quote and Description “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.” After Edna returned from her first swim in the sea (symbol of freedom) she stands up for herself and refuses to obey her husband’s orders to go to bed. As Edna’s thoughts and emotions begin to change, she becomes more self-aware and analyzes her former behavior. Even though she remembers submitting to her husband’s authority in the past, she no longer understands the logic that made her do it.

10. Rieza's Quote and Description "Another time she would have gone in at his request. She would through habit, have yielded to his desire: not with any sense of submission or obedience to his compelling wishes, but unthinkingly, as we walk, move, sit, stand, go through the daily treadmill of the life which has been portioned out to us." The obedience women were expected to have towards their husbands is described as something that is second nature in this passage. It wasn't something that had to be thought about it was just do what you're told no questions asked. In this chapter Edna defies the "true woman" expectations and realizes she never really had the option to do what she wanted. It is as if she were enlightened and her "new woman" mindset allows her to take notice of how naive she had been and how she was living for her husband instead of herself.

11. Jeffry's Quote and Description "No; I am going to stay out here." "This is more than folly," he blurted out. "I can't permit you to stay out there all night. You must come in the house instantly." Leonce belittles Edna's authority as a woman even further by treating her like a child. He expects Edna to obey him unconditionally, as most wives were to their husbands, and the idea of Edna disobeying him shocks him. He would usually ask Edna nicely with wordplay but here we see how he reacts when pushed. Leonce views Edna staying outside the house as her questioning his power which is why he wants her back inside right away.