Edna's Ribirth

       Who would have thought that after struggling to ignore thoughts of rebellion, then acknowledging them and finally embracing them, Edna Pontellier would resolve in suicide. This end to Chopin's novella shocked most readers, including myself. Since the beginning, we are able to serve as expectors in Edna's 'awakening'. This is why it comes as a shock her decision to succumb to the idea that things won't go as she pleases. Of course Robert's flee adds to the reasons of her suicide, because after all, there was no human being whom she wanted near her except Robert." However, men aren't really Edna's problem. Her problem on the other hand is wanting to belong to herself no one else. She desires to be independent, to not have to rely on anyone but herself. "She would never sacrifice herself for her children." (Chopin, 212) To do this she must go where no woman has gone before to achieve her dreams.

        In the last few pages of The Awakening, Chopin writes, "The water of the Gulf stretched out before her, gleaming with the million lights of the sun," again we are back at the see where Edna had her moment of awakening, realizing her strength and her position in the universe. "The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude." (Chopin, 212) This sentence caught my attention because it seemed familiar. I then noticed that I had talked about this phrase in a previous blog. Chopin writes the same sentence in chapter VI, as Edna walks into the sea. Besides personifying the sea, saying it has a voice, the phrase serves as symbolism in the novella. Not only does it represent freedom and independence, being at both the beginning and the end of the book, Chopin eludes that Edna's transformation went from the moment she entered the ea. and realized her power, until the moment she entered the sea, but was too overwhelmed to continue with her life. 

        This transformation can be analyzed as a rebirth. When you are born, you are naked and pure. You have not been shaped by society yet and you still conserve your identity. As you continue with your life, you lose that identity and become molded in what society considers you should be. At the end of the novella, Chopin writes, "how strange and awful it seemed to stand naked under the sky… she felt like some new-born creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known." (213) The sea is being the medium where Edna is born again and is also where she dies. This "world that it had never known" is the world of Edna when she awakens, and the world she leaves behind is where she dies. Even though technically it's the same sea, the same world, the meaning of each changes and Edna is able to differentiate and decide the one she would like to belong to.