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...