The Awakening by Kate Chopin is about a woman’s transformation from an obedient traditional housewife and mother into a self-realized, sexually liberate and independent woman. The novel published in 1899 back in a time when women were not thought of as people but as property of their husband’s. Throughout the novel Edna Pontieller expresses her progress, in The Awakening, as a new woman by using the symbolism of the caged birds, art and music, houses, and the sea.
From the very beginning of the story, the caged birds play a main role in symbolizing Edna’s entrapment. In the book the parrots kept repeating ““ Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That’s all right!”” (1.) Which in English means, “Go away! Go away! For heaven’s sake!” They …show more content…
While Edna stays in the mansion with her husband, Mr. Pontellier, she plays the role of a housewife, and she is not necessarily unhappy or depressed but she knows there is something missing. Her husband treats her poorly, it’s says in the book, “…looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage,” ( .) Mr. Pontellier looks at her only as a valuable piece of personal property, in which he has no true feelings for his wife. This house symbolizes before Edna starts to awaken. When Edna goes to Madame Antoine’s home on the Cheniere Caminada, she finds herself in a new, romantic, and foreign world. She has created a world of her own here by making her old social structures disappear. This is only a temporary shelter though and she cannot stay. When Edna finally has a place of her own, the “pigeon house” she can both be at home and independent. She can do as she pleases, without having to worry about how others will view her actions. While the “pigeon house” allows her to progress in her sexual awakening and to escape the cage that Leonce’s house constituted, Edna finds herself cooped up once again. She ends up feeling like an exile and a prisoner, and decides that she is at home nowhere. Edna hopes that death can offer her the things a home …show more content…
Caldwell writes, “Edna, unaccountably afraid of water resists at first. After giving in, she enters the water and swims for the first time. Deeply symbolic, this is a turning point for Edna's character in terms of her emerging independence and rebirth,” ( .) Another encounter with the sea was at the end of the story when Edna drowned herself. Chopin writes, “She did not look back now, but went on and on…She thought of Leonce and the children. They were a part of her life. But the need not have thought they could possess her, body and soul” (115.) Edna commits suicide because Robert is now gone, she knows she has her husband and children but that is not enough. Edna’s desires for freedom are achieved by drowning herself. Through both of these incidents, the sea represents an escape for Edna, from the roles of a married woman and the pressures from
From the very beginning of the story, the caged birds play a main role in symbolizing Edna’s entrapment. In the book the parrots kept repeating ““ Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That’s all right!”” (1.) Which in English means, “Go away! Go away! For heaven’s sake!” They …show more content…
While Edna stays in the mansion with her husband, Mr. Pontellier, she plays the role of a housewife, and she is not necessarily unhappy or depressed but she knows there is something missing. Her husband treats her poorly, it’s says in the book, “…looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage,” ( .) Mr. Pontellier looks at her only as a valuable piece of personal property, in which he has no true feelings for his wife. This house symbolizes before Edna starts to awaken. When Edna goes to Madame Antoine’s home on the Cheniere Caminada, she finds herself in a new, romantic, and foreign world. She has created a world of her own here by making her old social structures disappear. This is only a temporary shelter though and she cannot stay. When Edna finally has a place of her own, the “pigeon house” she can both be at home and independent. She can do as she pleases, without having to worry about how others will view her actions. While the “pigeon house” allows her to progress in her sexual awakening and to escape the cage that Leonce’s house constituted, Edna finds herself cooped up once again. She ends up feeling like an exile and a prisoner, and decides that she is at home nowhere. Edna hopes that death can offer her the things a home …show more content…
Caldwell writes, “Edna, unaccountably afraid of water resists at first. After giving in, she enters the water and swims for the first time. Deeply symbolic, this is a turning point for Edna's character in terms of her emerging independence and rebirth,” ( .) Another encounter with the sea was at the end of the story when Edna drowned herself. Chopin writes, “She did not look back now, but went on and on…She thought of Leonce and the children. They were a part of her life. But the need not have thought they could possess her, body and soul” (115.) Edna commits suicide because Robert is now gone, she knows she has her husband and children but that is not enough. Edna’s desires for freedom are achieved by drowning herself. Through both of these incidents, the sea represents an escape for Edna, from the roles of a married woman and the pressures from