Symbolism In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

Paths in life have twists and turns, but they are usually not very extreme. Although in today’s society if a woman is unhappy with her life, she can do anything in her power to change it to her liking, that was not the case in the 1800s. A Woman could not get a divorce or really be independent at all. It was not the normal thing for a woman to be unhappy with her life and general; as a matter of fact, if she was unhappy with her life, she was expected to stay quiet. In Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, the character Edna goes through many different awakenings and sees that she is not happy with the path she is on in life. Chopin connects Edna’s world and her eventual awakening through the symbols of water, piano playing, and birds.
A symbol Chopin uses to connect Edna’s world and her awakening is the symbol of water. To illustrate, Edna learns to swim over the course of the summer she is at Grand-Isle. After she learns to swim, Edna is “intoxicated by her newly conquered power” because she can now go out into the water by herself without feeling the need for someone to accompany her(28). Since Edna learns to swim, she …show more content…
Piano playing represents some of the social normalities that Edna despised. For example, while Edna disliked the entertainment aspect of music, her friend Adele loved to entertain like women were supposed to. Adele “gaily consented to play [piano] for the others” at a party when no-one else wanted to play(24). The social standards held to Edna were deciding factors in her quest for freedom. In addition, piano playing leads to Edna’s awakening and helps her find passion because she responds to music emotionally. When Mademoiselle Reisz plays the piano, “the very passions themselves [arouse] in [Edna’s] soul”(26). Piano playing awakens Edna’s soul; as a result, she sees what she is unhappy with in her life. To sum up, piano playing represents Edna’s