Throughout the novel, The Awakening, Kate Chopin uses images of birds to symbolize Edna Pontellier’s quest to be free from society’s oppressions. Through analyzing the symbolization and foreshadowing behind the images, the rise and fall of Edna’s path to liberation creates a more powerful message about what freedom really means. The images of birds are introduced in the first line of the novel, in the form of a caged parrot. Chopin writes, “A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: “Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That’s all right!” He could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood” (Chopin, 561). Here, the bird itself represents Edna Pontellier and her …show more content…
desire to be free. However, because the parrot is caged, much like Edna herself, freedom is unattainable. The birdcage in Edna’s case would be parallel to the oppressive ways of society during that time period, along with the wifely and motherly roles a woman was expected to fulfill. The outburst of the parrot shouting, “Go away! Go away! For God’s sake!” embodies Edna’s inner thoughts of craving independence from those that are restraining her from it, her husband being a prime example (Chopin, 561). That being said, the fact that the parrot also speaks a language “which nobody understood” is symbolic for Edna’s inability to voice her need for freedom, and therefore continuing to be misunderstood by her socially conforming peers. Through the constrained image of the parrot, it is apparent that Edna is unaware of how to attain the life awaiting her outside of the cage. As the novel progresses, Edna’s advancement towards full awakening progresses as well.
When Edna discusses what Mademoiselle Reiz said to her with Arobin, she recalls her saying, “Well, for instance, when I left her to-day, she put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong, she said. ‘The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to the earth’” (Chopin, 626). This excerpt shows how Edna is being encouraged to become independent like Mademoiselle Reiz, who is archetypally like her mentor throughout the novel. Reiz’s description of what a strong bird needs is symbolic for what is necessary for Edna to do. In order to make herself happy, Edna must defy her society and her family while maintaining strength and ignoring what others may think of her. If she were to go about this in a half-hearted way, Edna would undoubtedly be unsuccessful in her quest for liberation, as exemplified in Reiz’s pitiful description of the weak birds. Mademoiselle Reiz herself represents what Edna’s life would be like if she were to become completely independent. Although Edna receives encouragement from Reiz to become like her, she realizes how lonely and unhappy a life of complete autonomy is. This results in Edna feeling conflicted in choosing between her old oppressed life and a new secluded life of …show more content…
liberation. Edna decides to take a risky leap towards attaining complete and total freedom by moving out of her husband’s house. By moving into a place of her own that she payed for herself, labeled the pigeon house, Edna believes that she will finally be able to achieve complete freedom. The house being named after a pigeon, a bird typically found in crowded cities and parks, rather than a more majestic and free-flying bird like an eagle, is symbolic for how Edna is still not actually close to severing the ties with what’s holding her back. Her inability to let go entirely of the past is also evident with her new house being located just around the block from her old house. Consequently, Edna is not truly ready for a full awakening and therefore foreshadowing the internal struggles she will face. The last image of a bird in the novel appears just before Edna’s suicide.
Chopin writes, “A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water” (Chopin, 651). The death of the weakened bird foreshadows the death of Edna. She was able to achieve freedom on some level, however the norms of society still caused her to break down and be dissatisfied with her life. She couldn’t have everything she wanted, so her awakening in turn wasn’t fully-fledged, leading to her drowning in the sea. The broken wing of the bird symbolizes this incomplete freedom. Likewise, the struggle that the bird seems to face here to stay alive represents Edna’s fight to make it as far as she did, ultimately leading to her death. Although, through her suicide, Edna is able to achieve freedom. She is no longer expected to be responsible for caring for her children or fulfilling the needs of her husband. She doesn’t have to worry over the absence of Robert or unrealistically dream of a life where she can be with him without being frowned upon by society. In the end, Edna realizes she wasn’t going to be happy with choosing either a life of oppression or a life of seclusion. Therefore, the only way she could find true freedom was by drowning in the sea whose limitlessness had tempted her for so
long. Through observing the images of birds in the novel, the symbolism makes it clear as to what Edna’s fate would be. Ultimately, Edna did not withhold the strength that was necessary to overcome what society expected of her. Although her path to awakening ended in unexpected liberation, Edna’s idea of freedom was realistically just a fantasy.
Kate Chopin's novella The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a woman who throughout the novella tries to find herself. Edna begins the story in the role of the typical mother-woman distinctive of Creole society but as the novelette furthers so does the distance she puts between herself and society. Edna's search for independence and a way to stray from society's rules and ways of life is depicted through symbolism with birds, clothing, and Edna's process of learning to swim.
Kate Chopin uses characterization to help you understand the character of Edna on how she empowers and improves the quality of life. Edna becomes an independent women as a whole and enjoys her new found freedom. For example, Chopin uses the following quote to show you how she begins enjoying her new found freedom.”The race horse was a friend and intimate association of her
The presence of birds in the first passage of The Awakening seems to foreshadow some of the characteristics of the protagonist. It is rather interesting that the parrot is outdoors, while the mockingbird is inside. Perhaps this would represent the presence of opposites in this novel. The parrot seems to be provoking the mockingbird in order to get some sort of response. This seems to point to the presence of loneliness which the protagonist feels. However he is being rather anti social by stating “Allez vous-en! Alez Vous! Saprisit! That’s all right!” I may be wrong, but I believe that means “Go Away! Go Away! Damn it” in French. This altercation between the parrot and the mockingbird could point to the presence of a jealous conflict within the characters. On the surface it seems that the parrot is rather agitated that the mockingbird, a bird that is generally found outdoors, is inside while the parrot, a domesticated pet is kept outside. Ironically though both birds are actually trapped with the parrot being held in the cage and the mockingbird being trapped indoors. The cage symbolizes being trapped whether literally or figuratively. Also the presence of characters that are not understood by their surroundings might shed some light on the inner conflict of the novel. It is also useful to point out that the parrot, a bird which mimics it’s surroundings is being mimicked by a bird which also mimics, such as a mockingbird. The may point to the possible presence of a theme of mimicry in this novel.
According to the Louisiana society, Edna Pontellier has the ideal life, complete with two children and the best husband in the world. However, Edna disagrees, constantly crying over her feelings of oppression. Finally, Edna is through settling for her predetermined role in society as man’s possession, and she begins to defy this. Edna has the chance to change this stereotype, the chance to be “[t]he bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice” (112). The use of a metaphor comparing Edna to a bird proves her potential to rise above society’s standards and pave the pathway for future women. However, Edna does not have “strong [enough] wings” (112). After Robert, the love of her life and the man she has an affair with, leaves, Edna becomes despondent and lacks an...
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
Kate Chopin's The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother living in the upper crust of New Orleans in the 1890s. It depicts her journey as her standing shifts from one of entrapment to one of empowerment. As the story begins, Edna is blessed with wealth and the pleasure of an affluent lifestyle. She is a woman of leisure, excepting only in social obligations. This endowment, however, is hindered greatly by her gender.
Ranging from caged parrots to the meadow in Kentucky, symbols and settings in The Awakening are prominent and provide a deeper meaning than the text does alone. Throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin, symbols and setting recur representing Edna’s current progress in her awakening. The reader can interpret these and see a timeline of Edna’s changes and turmoil as she undergoes her changes and awakening.
Nature, in the works of Chopin and Hughes serves as a powerful symbol that represents the struggle of the human soul towards freedom, the anguish of that struggle, and the joy when that freedom is finally reached. In The Awakening, the protagonist Edna Pontellier undergoes a metamorphosis. She lives in Creole society, a society that restricts sexuality, especially for women of the time. Edna is bound by the confines of a loveless marriage, unfulfilled, unhappy, and closed in like a caged bird. During her summer at Grand Isle she is confronted with herself in her truest nature, and finds herself swept away by passion and love for someone she cannot have, Robert Lebrun.
Before entering the ocean, the setting that allows Enda’s spiritual awakening to occur, she sees an injured bird, “A bird with a broken wing.beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling, disabled, down, down to the water”( Chopin #). The bird indirectly represents Enda’s failure to seek liberation and defy the restrictions society sets upon her. The fall of the bird is reflective of Enda’s spiritual awakening as it represents society’s fatal misjudgment as she desires to rebel against society and participates in an infatuation with her lover Robert.
Throughout her novel, The Awakening, Kate Chopin uses symbolism and imagery to portray the main character's emergence into a state of spiritual awareness. The image that appears the most throughout the novel is that of the sea. “Chopin uses the sea to symbolize freedom, freedom from others and freedom to be one's self” (Martin 58). The protagonist, Edna Pontellier, wants that freedom, and with images of the sea, Chopin shows Edna's awakening desire to be free and her ultimate achievement of that freedom.
To briefly summarize this poem, I believe that the poem could be separated into three parts: The first part is composed in the first and second letters, which stress on the negative emotions towards the miserable pains, illnesses that the parents are baring, and also their hatred of the birds. The second part, I believe will be the third and fourth letters, which talks about the birds’ fights and the visiting lady from the church. And the last part, starts from the fifth letters to the rest of them, which mainly describe the harmonious life between the parents and those birds.
The fact that Edna is an artist is significant, insofar as it allows her to have a sensibility as developed as the author's. Furthermore, Edna is able to find in Mlle. Reisz, who has established herself as a musician, a role model who inspires her in her efforts at independence. Mlle. Reisz, in confiding to Edna that "You are the only one worth playing for," gives evidence of the common bond which the two of them feel as women whose sensibilities are significantly different from those of the common herd. The French heritage which Edna absorbed through her Creole upbringing allowed her, like Kate Chopin herself, to have knowledge or a way of life that represented a challenge to dominant Victorian conventions.
Bird usually portrays an image of bad luck that follows afterwards and in this novel, that is. the beginning of all the bad events that occur in the rest of the novel. It all started when Margaret Laurence introduced the life of Vanessa MacLeod. protagonist of the story, also known as the granddaughter of a calm and intelligent woman. I am a woman.
The rope symbolizes death and destruction. When Mr. Wright was killed, he was chocked to death with a rope. The same way Mrs. Wright was killed, so was Mrs. Wright's bird. The death of Mr. Wright was Mrs. Wright's way of starting a new life. The bird's death symbolizes Mrs. Wright's dying because she is with Mr.
bird as the metaphor of the poem to get the message of the poem across