Individuality In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening tells the story of Edna, a married woman, who falls in love with a man, Robert, in 19th century Louisiana. In the chosen passage the narrator describes Edna’s thoughts as to why she chose to go to the beach with Robert. The presence of the themes of freedom and solitude, convention versus individuality, and the theme of reflection all evoke Edna’s awakening in the novel.

The freedom that Edna’s beginning to experience goes hand in hand with the theme of convention versus individuality present in the passage. The omniscient narrator describes Edna’s “two contradictory impulses which impelled her” ( l. 4). The two impulses mirror the idea of right or wrong, right representing convention and wrong representing

In the beginning, the narrator describes “a certain light was beginning to dawn dimly” ( l. 5) within Edna. The light represents Edna’s awakening, the more she reflects on who she is an individual, the brighter the light becomes. Similarly, the same idea is illustrated when Edna’s reflects on “her position in the universe as a human being, [...] as an individual to the world” ( l.12-13). Edna’s thoughts and reflections allow her to realize her individuality and freedom from society. The narrator also emphasizes the beginning of worlds being dangerous with “few of us ever [emerging] from such beginning!” and “How many souls perish in its tumult!” ( l. 19). The statement is a reflection on how being awakened and wanting to change won’t always work out. Moreover, the awakening leads Edna to realize her reflections are a “ponderous weight of wisdom” ( l. 14). The oxymoron shows how Edna is aware of the responsibility that comes with knowledge and that her becoming awakened could potentially be bad. In addition, the sea lures Edna’s soul “to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation” ( l. 24). The sea’s freedom and solitude allow Edna to seek comfort in her inner thoughts, they aren’t ‘ponderous’ in the