How Does Edna Pontellier's Awakening Change Throughout The Novel

Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, resembles the time period of the late nineteenth century where women are constrained to being house wives because of the norms in society in that time. So, during this time it was prevalent for women to lack independence or even freedom to that matter. In this novel the protagonist faces the reality of confinement to being that ideal woman. Edna Pontellier, a young woman, feels disconsolate because of her unhappy marriage and being a mother because it restricts her from her desires. However, throughout the novel Edna experiences awakenings and trials causing her to gain courage and try to change her life which makes her seem rebellious to the creole society. Chopin uses many symbols throughout the book to

An example is during her first swim and it says, “Once she turned and looked toward the shore, and looked toward the people she had left here...Stretch of water water behind her assumed the aspect of a barrier which her unaided strength would never be able to overcome” (33). Edna realizes while looking at the people during her awakening in the sea that she will never truly have that freedom she desires. Society will constantly hinder her from reaching that desire because she is so different and they will never understand her because it is against their standards. Similarly, her sexual desires cause Edna to succumb to solitude. Edna falls in love with Robert Lebrun which aids her in her sexual needs but their relationships ceases when the narrator says,“Good-by because I love you.” (129). Robert decides to end their relationship because he could not handle Edna being different and wanting an affair but he does not understand because of his mindset due to society. Robert is the last thing Edna really has to fulfill her desires she recognizes with the help of the sea. The feeling of being alone overwhelms Edna and consumes her thoughts and being as a whole. The narrator says, “There was no one thing in the world that she desired. there was no human being whom she wanted near her except Robert; and she even realize that the day would come when he ,too, and the thought of him would melt out of her existence, leaving her alone”

It can be seen how they all connect to the sea and her life in her last moments. First, is the solitude she experiences and the narrator says, “But when she was there beside the sea, absolutely alone, she cast the unpleasant, pricking garments...and the waves that invited her” (132). Solitude is present but this time this loneliness she feels with connections of the sea is giving her comfort as she prepares to enter it. Second, is her sexual desires and the narrator says, “The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace” (133). As she walks into the sea it is “Embracing” her body giving her that satisfaction and fulfilling her needs of that part of her life she is struggling with and was never able to really achieve. Lastly, is Edna’s desire for that freedom she has been yearning for and the novel says, “She went on and on. She remembered the nights she swam far out, and recalled the terror that seized her at the fear of being unable to regain the shore. She did not look back now, but went on and on... and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again” (133). Edna becomes aware that the only desire she was truly able to fulfill was her desire for freedom and that is by swimming. This is what encourages her to keep swim far out to feel that freedom again because in her awakening it begins by feeling free in the