Summary:
The Awakening is a story that at first glance the reader may not notice the complexity of the symbolic references to Edna's plight and her escape from it. However, upon further contemplation one may come to respect the intricate signs of her troubles and the way by which she sets herself "free."
The Awakening is a story that at first glance the reader may not notice the complexity of the symbolic references to Edna's plight and her escape from it but upon further contemplation one may come to respect the intricate signs of her troubles and the way by which she sets herself "free." Two of these such references stand out among the others. First is the young couple in love who is constantly described with the church going lady in black following close behind and second is the sea. At first these seem to serve no other purpose than to simply fill a few paragraphs with their descriptions and in that lies the beauty and the magnificence of the story.
As stated earlier the couple in love were often portrayed with the church going lady in black following not too far behind. These three unnamed characters represent the ongoing battle between love and morality that consumes the life of Edna. The couple in love symbolize Robert and Edna's adulterous love for each other while the lady in black represents the haunting condemnation of their love. It was a reminder that no matter how far Robert and Edna went that they could never escape the unholiness of their secret infatuation with each other. Edna was faced with an inward battle between a life that she so terribly despised and her own desires. Robert's character served so much more than a physical person. It symbolized the unattainable desires within Edna. She wanted so much more than she received when she so naively entered into marriage and probably much more than even was possible. She could never be satisfied with what she had and that was part of her nature.
She wanted everything and nothing. She overlooked all that she had and saw only the things that she could not and it was these things that she wanted. She had a wonderful life yet she longed for an escape.
The sea was a constantly reoccurring setting in the beginning of the story. I believe the sea represented many things in the story. It represented Edna as a person and it was a physical representation of Edna's want for that which she could not have. A man can own all the land on Earth but never can he own the sea. This is also how Edna felt about herself. A man could capture her and put her in a cage but never, in that cage, could he hold her soul. Thus the sea represented the entire theme of the story. It also showed Edna's want for the physically unattainable when after she learned to swim she wanted to swim far out into the sea and soon realized that physically this, for her was not possible. The sea also served as a means to an end. It was as if when Edna learned to swim she had learned how to get what she wanted. It was like Edna and the sea were one entity and when she took her life she was simply allowing her soul to go back to where it had come. She never felt at home with her family on the island and that was because the sea was her home.
This is the complete article, containing 540 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
