The Awakening and Selected Short Stories

At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life—that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions.

Nothing," returned Mrs. Pontellier, with a start, adding at once: "How stupid! But it seems to me it is the reply we make instinctively to such a question. Let me see," she went on, throwing back her head and narrowing her fine eyes till they shone like two vivid points of light. "Let me see. I was really not conscious of thinking of anything; but perhaps I can retrace my thoughts."

The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.

To be an artist includes much; one must possess many gifts—absolute gifts—which have not been acquired by one's own effort. And, moreover, to succeed, the artist must possess the courageous soul.

Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life

The artist must possess the courageous soul that dares and defies."

Nature takes no account of moral consequences, of arbitrary conditions which we create, and which we feel obliged to maintain at any cost."

you seem to be forcing me into disclosures which can result in nothing; as if you would have me bare a wound for the pleasure of looking at it, without the intention or power of healing it."

"I am destined to see you only by accident,"

all sense of reality had gone out of her life; she had abandoned herself to Fate, and awaited the consequences with indifference.