Edna Pontellier Symbolism In The Awakening

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Claim: The repeatedly mentioned characters, the lovers and the lady in black, symbolize blissful ignorance versus a harsh reality. While there are many characters in The Awakening that are only mentioned while Edna Pontellier is on the island, none stick out more than the young lovers and the lady in black. They are almost always talked about sequentially, the lovers before the lady in black. There is one time when only one is spoken of without the other, and that is when Edna, Robert, and several others went to the religious service at, “The quaint little Gothic church of Our Lady of Lourdes” (30). It can be inferred from both her dark wardrobe and from her extreme devoutness, that the lady in black was a widow. She represents the hard