The Hopeless Naked Man

In The Awakening, Chopin describes Edna of being very fond of music and that, “Musical strains, well rendered, had a way of evoking pictures in her mind,” (Chopin, 34). On some mornings, Edna sometimes liked to sit in the room when Madame Ratignolle played or practiced. She then goes to describe one of her many pictures that she made by listening to music, “One piece which that lady played Edna had entitled "Solitude." It was a short, plaintive, minor strain. The name of the piece was something else, but she called it "Solitude." When she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore. He was naked. His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him,” (Chopin, 34). The way I see it, Edna named the piece Solitude because it represents her life. The hopeless naked man Edna pictured represents herself. She’s trying everything she can to be free, that’s why the man is naked, because he’s trying to become free like the bird, but he is also hopeless because he know that he’ll never be like the bird. The bird symbolizes what she truly wants and that is simply to be free.