... ny restricting and confining places. For instance, she needs open vast places like a meadow like the one she walked in as child in Kentucky , or a beach or the streets of the large city of New Orleans. Edna's yearning to infringe upon societal infrastructure is linked to the theme of entrapment. Chopin has skilfully ... white represents her metamorphosis and her initial, distinct purity which he being levelled by the vertical earthly brown. Appropriately, even early on in Edna's development at the beach at Le Grande Isle, Edna wears considerably less clothing than her counterpart, Adele....

• Word Count: 2022
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... cover up his wife leaving. Although her new house is supposed to represent a new life, Edna is lost without Robert. In response, Edna travels to the Grand Isle to the beach not caring that Leonce will be hurt by her fidelity. It is there where Edna feels that she cannot be a possession of Leonce. By being a possession of Leonce, to society ... , she cannot be with her true love, Robert. Slowly creeping into the water at the beach, Edna commits suicide because she can no longer be a possession, and she cannot have her own independence. Edna swam in the water with the intention of killing ...

• Word Count: 2270
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... wants, not just what her husband thinks she should paint. Her art also represents the pinnacle of her awakening towards freedom. This is the awakening Edna finds while on the beach. "The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the ... the question of whether it was due to their marriage or their wish for freedom this shows their lack of control of their mind. As Edna is walking along the beach she sees, "A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling,...

• Word Count: 1547
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... part of her soul that she lost when she married. Edna was feeling the awakening that was about to happen. The next day she feels a need to go to the beach and felt that, "A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her, the light which, showing the way, forbids it- (Beaty 49). After a summer party, Edna falls asleep, against her ... feels the walls of society and responsibility closing in on her, she escapes to Grand Isle, the birthplace of her awakening, one final time. She sheds her clothes upon the beach and swims until the water consumes her. Whether Edna's suicide is an act ...

• Word Count: 2280
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... of marriage and her only escape from this is stated at the start of the novel itself when Edna gives the "rings" to her husband, when she returns from the beach. The rings probably show Edna's feeling of isolation and her boundness by marriage. Rings are usually meant to prove a freely faithful affection for the other partner but Edna's affection is ... come back". Furthermore, when Robert returns from Mexico and asks Edna what has she been doing "all these days", she replies that she's been " seeing the waves and the white beach of Grand Isle" and " working with a little more comprehen...

• Word Count: 2043
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... . Now Edna was ready to set herself free. Prior to Edna's death, or rebirth as some would see it, the woman is in a state of solitude. Edna's walk to the beach was pleasant and peaceful. She repeats, "The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude." When Edna first arrived ... on the beach, not a living thing in sight. Then, to her demise she noticed a bird wit a broken wing flying in the air above. Yet, the bird was not soaring confidently. The bird fluttered ... ...

• Word Count: 1472
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... an outward knowledge of the expansion of the universe and an inner direct obsession with self. Paradoxically, Edna's first swim symbolizes both rebirth and maturation. When she descends to the beach, she is described as a "little tottering, stumbling, clutching child, who walks for the first time alone." Before her awakening, Edna is afraid of abandoning herself to the sea's embrace. At ... the very end of the story just before Edna enters the ocean for the last time End watches the coast. There is no living thing all along the beach, but there is a bird, a wild free bird, with a broken...

• Word Count: 1283
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... her initial awakening after swimming in the ocean for the first time. She has taken to relaxing in the hammock outside and her husband, Leonce Pontellier, coming back from the beach sees her and begins to verbally protest her choice to stay outside in the hammock. After deciding he cannot accept his wife's behavior to oppose his wishes he orders her ... ...

• Word Count: 1499
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... found enjoyable nor did he treat her as the woman that she is. The first chapter clearly shows this negligence of Mr. Pontellier. When Edna had come back from the ! beach a little sun burned, he looked "at his wife as one looks at a piece of personal property which has suffered some damage." (The Awakening, p. 2) Mr. Pontellier treated Edna as a possession and ... ...

• Word Count: 1973
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... it had no beginning and no end" (190). Throughout the story the ocean represented Edna's constant struggle for self-realization and independence. From her first flow of emotion on the beach to her last breath of life in the sea, the ocean beckons her. The voice of the sea lures her onward in her journey toward liberation and empowerment. It was ... ...

• Word Count: 2488
• Approx Pages: 10

... who comes and goes because of business. This sounds almost exactly like Chopin's life style. While on vacation, Edna falls in love with Robert Lebrun. She often goes to the beach with him and she spends time with him alone. She begins to realize for the first time that she is an individual. When she realizes this, she feels as though ... ...

• Word Count: 1384
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... she experienced while swimming. Edna Pontellier relies heavily on the support of her friends to help her in this defiance of her society. In fact, it is sitting on the beach with her good friend, Madame Ratignolle, that Edna first realizes how generally unsatisfied she feels. She is only truly happy when she is with Robert, a charming young man at the ... ...

• Word Count: 1629
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School