Romance occludes her ordinary vision and sharpens her inward vision. As she awakens, she begins to see the world as through a misty lens. Her memories of childhood are mostly image and emotion but when she decides to marry Pontellier, вЂњshe felt she would take her place with a certain dignity in the world of reality, closing the portals forever behind her upon the realm of romance and dreams.вЂќ Her loveless, practical marriage carries her into realism вЂ“ a period that coincides with what she remembers as a long sleep, a time when her feelings and thoughts lay dormant. Robert, Victor, Arobin and several other characters are more ambiguous, because they switch sometimes from one perspective to the other: Robert, for example, is interested in business and respectability, but he is also sensitive to the magic of a summer night.Д®dna herself passes through several phases. Edna and Mademoiselle Reisz, who seek out emotional and spiritual experience, exemplify romanticism.

Pontellier and Madame Ratignolle, who are preoccupied almost exclusively with surfaces-the appearance of a comfortable home, the appearance of a happy family-exemplify realism. In ChopinвЂ™s novel, realism emerges from a conventional worldview, and romanticism emerges from an individualistic worldview. Realism is a perspective that emphasizes facts, surfaces, and lifeвЂ™s practical aspects, and romanticism as a perspective that focuses on emotion, varieties of experience, and the inner life.

Quotes from the awakening