Adele spends her free time playing with her children or making something that will help benefit them such as, " sewing upon a diminutive pair of night-drawers" (13). She is very beautiful and is described as having, "nothing subtle or hidden about her charms; her beauty was all there, flaming and apparent" (13). Adele is very self-giving and willing to sacrifice herself for others. For example, although Adele has complications during childbirth she continues to make her husband happy by having more children "about every two years" (14). Although Adele is attentive to her husband and loves spending time with her children, another character in The Awakening, Mrs. Edna Pontellier, acts exactly opposite towards her husband and children.
Edna Pontellier is the antagonist to mother-women. Edna is distance from her children and disagreeable to her husband. Edna is not admirable to her husband because she flirts with other men and even allows herself to explore sexual feeling towards one of the men. She partakes in this act when she, "leans over and kisses him (Robert)" (175). After kissing Robert, Edna exclaims, " I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier's possessions to dispose or not. I give myself where I choose" (176). As a result of Edna's behavior, Edna's children are not seen as mother-tots, children who rely on their mothers. This is evident when the novel exclaims, "if one of the Pontellier boys took a tumble whilst at play, he was not apt to rush crying to his mothers arms for comfort; he would more likely pick himself up, wipe the water out of his eyes and the sand out of his mouth, and go on playing" (12). One might say that Edna's children act in this way because Edna has her children "follow (her) at the respectful distance which they require her to observe" (18). Edna's children learned to be independent and act like adults. When Edna becomes annoyed with her life at home she moves out of the house and sends her children to live with their grandparents.
