Introduction Chapter 1 Awakened Women to Be Epitomized in The Awakening 1.1 Women hungering for autonomous selfhood 1.2 Women awakened to marital complexity 1.3 Women initiated into libidinal mystery Chapter 2 Edna's \"Avant-garde\" Awakening 2.1 Edna's epistemological struggle for selfhood 2.2 Edna's full awareness of and embrace of passion . Edna's awakening to the paradoxical nature of physical love 2.4 Edna's epiphany concerning nature's ruthless trick on women through motherhood and wifehood 2.5 Edna's recognition of her struggle as useless passion Chapter 3 Edna's Solitary Perplexity 3.1 The Hamlet-like dilemma Edna confronts in choosing her role model 3.2 The traumatic bewilderment Edna experiences concerning physical love 3.3 The irreconcilable plight Edna faces between indiviayndmtherhood 3.4 The unattainable paradise Edna pursues Chapter 4 Edna's Ambiguous Transcendence 4.1 An appropriate retribution -- a cursed transcendence 4.2 A choice of no choice -- a biological transcendence 4.3 A spiritual rebirth -- an affirmative transcendence 4.4 A tentative endeavor -- Schopenhauerian approach to Edna's drowning Conclusion Abbreviations & Notes Bibliography