Knowing a solid, well-trusted confidant or confidante, provides every person or character the support that they need throughout life and oftentimes assist the individual in analyzing the situation and come to a well though out, viable conclusion. In Kate Chopin's groundbreaking feminist novel, The Awakening, the heroine, Edna Pontellier, finds herself needing a confidante to help her express her newly realized epiphany. Mademoiselle Reisz, a free and confident artist, living a solitary life, provides Edna the sympathetic ear that throughout the novel helps her find her way in the confusing and turbulent rapids of her life.
             Mademoiselle Reisz spends her time contemplating the meaning of life, producing emotion ladened art and living life to the fullest. This life grows to be exactly what Edna realizes she wants and finds herself reaching in many directions to find her way. When she meets Mademoiselle Reisz, Edna finds herself instantly drawn to her and therefore reaches out to Mademoiselle Reisz for inspiration. Throughout numerous visits to the home of her newly found confidante, Edna discovers during one of those visits, that her confidante communicates quite often with the man whom Edna was courting before he traveled to Mexico. Begging Mademoiselle Reisz to read the letters, she finds herself smothered with feelings for Robert, which she yearns to express. The strong confidante she found from mademoiselle Reisz gives Edna the opportunity to work through the flood of feelings and transcends it all to the final point of love and passion. Mademoiselle Reisz enforces the deep-seated feelings within Edna and watches as they blossom into a meeting between the two when Robert comes to visit a short while thereafter. The loving friendship that Mademoiselle Reisz provides to Edna allows the reader to grow fond, and appreciate the wonder of this uniting force and leaves them striving for one similar to the one presented in thi...