The Sea In The Awakening

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The Awakening is primarily about Edna Pontillier’s psychological journey and her titular awakening to the social climate and confines that she resides in. Kate Chopin makes a statement about these confines by showing how that society influences Edna and her journey. For this purpose the sea is effectively used as a symbol in many different ways throughout the novel. But never does the sea’s symbolism reveal more about Edna than in chapter six, in which the sea symbolizes her subconscious, and in turn reveals the nature of Edna’s awakening and its implications throughout the book. Mrs. Pontillier first feels the quiet murmurings of her disillusionment and discontent early on in the novel, while vacationing at the island Grand Isle. With an experienced voice, the narration illustrates Edna’s “beginning of things” as …show more content…

Her awakening takes place in her mind, and because of this, it destroys her. Though she awakens to society’s pressures, no amount of reform or change possible in that time would be freeing enough for her. She is lost in “mazes of inward contemplation” and, instead of being concerned with the situation as a whole, is therefore concentrated on what its effect is on her (14). “The sea speaks to the soul” and is not rational or logical, but emotional and passionate, and her choices throughout the book reflect a general lack of foresight (14). Her subconscious calls on her to free herself, but the price of freedom is the realization of her pain and sorrow. For this reason the sea, or subconscious, is comforting, and it is appealing to be enfolded “in its soft, close embrace” (14). When unaware, there is no struggle against the current social conditions, no agonizing conflict between reality and the newly freed mind. Therefore, Edna gives up her life for the release of her true self, by wading deep into her subconscious and drowning in its

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