Edna's Goodbye

Before we read The Awakening, Miss. Lucia said to pay close attention to Chopin's use the ocean because it symbolizes a major theme. I didn’t understand at first, an ocean is just an ocean, right? No special symbolism? I mean she did talk about it a lot, but what did it mean? If you finished the book, it really ties in the novel to create the perfect about of foreshadowing, as well as the perfect ending. The last chapter displayed how the ocean represented Edna’s freedom.

The first night Edna went into the ocean with the group of friends she didn’t go that far onto the beach, so she stayed back a little with Robert. After that night, she started gasping onto the idea of freedom, desiring it more than ever before.  By the end of the last chapter, when she walked into the ocean and to never return, that was when she had the freedom she desired for so long. She knew there was no love in her soul for her husband, but Robert? She loved him; that is a fact. However, even he did not understand, “‘Good-bye, because I love you.’ He did not know; he did not understand. He would never understand,” (Chopin, 57). The line, “He would never understand,” (Chopin, 57), casts an unnerving feeling, a hint of what she was going to do, and a glimpse into her mind, that nobody will ever understand her.     

The ending threw me off guard quite a bit, I knew Edna wanted freedom, but I didn’t think she would ever commit suicide. It bothered me that she left her kids, no child should ever be left without a mother or a father. However, I’m glad Edna got the freedom she so desperately desired.