Option #5

In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, the journey begins in the late 1800’s with Edna Pontellier spending a summer in Grand Isle at a resort with other wealthy individuals from New Orleans. In a desperate attempt to find her voice, Edna begins to disobey her husband and motherly duties to her children. Chopin attempts to convey the struggle of being in a loveless marriage, as well as the struggle of a woman to find her voice in the shadow of her husband in a upper-class lifestyle.

The sea is perhaps one of the most important symbols that Chopin depicts throughout. I found the idea of the sea in relation to Edna to be extremely ironic. On land, she comes off as highly dependent on companionship, whether its through her husband or the other resort guest company. Very rarely in Grand Isle do we encounter Edna without someone by her side. However when she comes in contact with water, she suddenly is overcome with the ability to embrace the solitary the sea offers. To Edna, “the voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude” (Chopin 108).  The sea creates a captive effect over Edna, inviting her into its depths and reminding her of the vastness of the universe and her position in regard to the universe as a wife and mother. The sea provides her an escape from her duties, which becomes very apparent at the end of the novel when she takes her own life in the same place she was first able to learn to swim and learn of her own freedom from her obligations. The sea to Edna represented not only her potential freedom but the tragedy that independence can bring.

Part of me sympathizes with Edna. Although I am young, I can’t imagine the pain that can be brought about being stuck in a loveless marriage. While Mr. Pontellier may be what some would call the “perfect” husband, that can’t be enough. No amount of gifts or vacations could satisfy what Edna was searching for, love. Yet part of me can’t help but to feel sorry for Edna as well. It seems as she has the immense desire for attention and to be adored by those that are around her. Her relationship with Robert left me wondering if things would have been different if she was to have been with him instead. Or could this be Edna’s fatal flaw? Could no amount of attention be enough for her?

I would give Kate Chopin’s The Awakening a 4. As a woman in today’s society, you can’t help to be empathetic for her being stuck in a loveless marriage where she feels trapped and hindered. I think many women can relate, whether in context to love or not, feeling trapped as a women in this society and not knowing the abilities we posses and the freedom we can obtain.