The Sea In The Awakening

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

“necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing” (14). The reason this beginning is vague and chaotic is because it takes place in the subconscious, the deepest reaches of the mind. Many times in the novel Edna is described as asleep, unaware of what is going on around her. At this point Edna has only been realizing the drawbacks of her society subconsciously. On the surface, she only can perceive murky, fleeting feelings of discontent.
Could this subconscious element be why “many souls perish in its tumult?” (14). This is the first implication that the sea is strongly linked to Edna’s subconscious. The language used when describing how so many souls perish, “in its tumult”, while referencing the beginning of awakening, can be easily used to describe the state of the sea. Many people have perished in tumultuous seas. The sea’s voice also calls to those beginning their awakening, with murmurs and whispers, such as something in the back of someone’s mind trying desperately to be acknowledged. And just like Edna’s awakening springs from the sea, from the time around it at Grand Isle, her new thoughts and viewpoints also have their origins in her subconscious.
This passage reveals why Edna’s awakening is characterized the way it is. Because her awakening comes primarily from her subconscious, it has to do not with shaping the circumstances of her world, but rather changing the way she perceives and understands what is going on around her. Edna’s journey is an internal journey, not measured by the mild success her artwork has, or the victory of obtaining the pidgeon house. It is measured by how she reacts to these changes, her relationship with her husband, and her flirtation with Alcee Arobin. It is always about Edna, not the changes in society she makes. She does not inspire any other women to do the same as her, and she does not make a lasting impact on her society for the good of others. She does however make a lasting impact on herself.
Understanding this passage and its connection with Edna’s subconscious can show insights into her suicide.

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

sea.