ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Respect and Reputation Videos 16 videos
A cheap shot at a bestseller or a deeper book with connections relevant to the human race? In The Call of the Wild, the protagonist is a dog named...
What is the American Dream? Is it popularity? Or is it being content with what you have? In Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman, the American...
Meet Emma Woodhouse of Jane Austen's Emma. She’s a rich young woman with a good social life living in 18th-century England. We bet she has an aw...
The Awakening Summary 43412 Views
Share It!
Description:
This novel is all about finding yourself, which hopefully you can accomplish before you find yourself smack dab in the middle of an ocean without a paddle. Or a boat, for that matter.
Transcript
- 00:05
The Awakening, a la Shmoop. I love being a wife and mother. Mostly. Kind
- 00:12
of. A bit.
- 00:13
It's great, really, but when you're wiping noses and planning dinners and getting bossed
- 00:16
around by your husband, you kind of lose track of your inner self. …
- 00:20
That's why I really enjoyed my trip to Grand Isle. Lots of down time with my friend Adele,
Full Transcript
- 00:26
Madame Reisz <Rice>, and that hunky Robert. I know, I'm married, but a girl can dream,
- 00:31
can't she? Robert and I went for lots of long, platonic
- 00:34
walks on the beach. And long swims, too. I swam a little too far one night, it was touch
- 00:40
and go for a minute there…
- 00:40
…but I made it back. Thank goodness. I was so wired that I defied my bossy husband by
- 00:42
staying up past bedtime.
- 00:43
I think he was worried that this would send me down a path of vice and crime. …
- 00:49
It didn't…at least, not the crime part. But I was changing into a new, improved version
- 00:57
of myself. Now I was “Take Charge Edna,” …
- 01:01
… a sassy gal who marched to the beat of her own drummer. …
- 01:06
In another dramatic development, I was really starting to crush on Robert. Unfortunately,
- 01:12
I didn't realize this until he decided to leave for Mexico. ..
- 01:17
Even worse, vacation was over and I had to go home. …
- 01:20
But once I got back, I wasn't really interested in being the perfect wife anymore. So I stopped
- 01:26
trying, and started… painting. My husband was a bit upset about my new life direction.
- 01:32
Rebellion was liberating, but something was still missing. I decided that I had to get
- 01:33
my own place, with my own money.
- 01:34
So I got a little house where I could be independent and artistic, and… maybe hook up every now
- 01:40
and then. Mademoiselle Reisz really wanted me to become
- 01:45
“the hero of my own life,” as Dickens would put it, and she showed me letters from
- 01:52
Robert, saying that he loved me.
- 01:56
I was at a bit of a crossroads in my life, but Take Charge Edna knew exactly which way
- 02:02
to go!
- 02:03
While I was expanding my mental horizons, I had a fling with the local heartbreaker,
- 02:08
Alcée Arobin <All-SAY Air-oh-BAN>. I didn't love him the way I loved Robert, but in my
- 02:14
defense… he was really cute.
- 02:17
I was pretty sure that I should hate myself for moving out and cheating on my husband...but
- 02:21
I had a hard time seeing all this happiness as a bad thing.
- 02:26
Stuff got weird when I heard that Robert was coming back from Mexico. Imagine my surprise
- 02:31
when I ran into him at Mademoiselle Reisz’ house.
- 02:35
That deadbeat had been in town for almost two days, and his fingers must have been broken,
- 02:41
because I didn’t get a letter or a phone call!
- 02:44
Also, he had a little pouch that he got from some hussy in Mexico. Not that I was jealous
- 02:50
or anything.
- 02:51
And if you think that situation was awkward, Alcée then showed up, and Robert vamoosed.
- 02:58
I sent Alcée away, too…I just wasn’t in the mood for love anymore. I’m so fickle.
- 03:04
It was another few days before I ran into Robert again, and things went a little better
- 03:08
this time. I took him back to my new house for smoochies, and we took the next relationship
- 03:13
step! The L-word!
- 03:16
Naturally, this was when I heard that my friend Adele was in labor, and I had to go be her
- 03:21
birth coach. It was kind of well-timed, though, because Robert was getting all moony-eyed
- 03:25
about marriage. Just when I was starting to enjoy life as an eligible bachelorette.
- 03:26
I made Robert promise to stay right where he was, but when I got back from Adele’s,
- 03:29
he was gone. He only left a note, saying, “Goodbye, because I love you.” Come on,
- 03:34
Rob, lighten up…not every woman needs a ring on it!
- 03:37
I was in a pretty dark emotional place after that. …
- 03:41
I went back to our vacation spot at Grand Isle, but that was even more depressing. I
- 03:46
thought maybe a nice skinny dip would cheer me up. It was kind of a bust, though, because
- 03:50
I ended up drowning.
- 03:52
Do yourself a favor…if you ever have a mid-life crisis, just buy
- 04:19
a convertible!
Related Videos
We may all be fools when it comes to love, but thankfully none of us will accidentally switch places with our twin brother and fall in love with ou...
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.
Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...