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'The Awakening' by Kate Chopin

 

Moreover, as there are always two sides to everything, birds can also be seen as symbols of "distraction". Since this bird maybe representing Edna's reflection in a distractive manner and the consequent inability to sacrifice for her children and o live and awakened life.
             Secondly, learning to swim is also used as a symbol of sanction and freedom. Edna struggled all summer to learn to swim just like she struggled in realizing the truths of life in order to experience freedom. This provided Edna with strength and joy and also learned how to deal with situations. Just like learning to swim made her feel happy and gave her power, in the end the same power made her lose her life willingly and "the shore was far behind her, and her strength was gone". Thus learning to swim made Edna experience two aspects of her life- one of freedom and the other of death.
             Edna's boundness 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 not freely given, as she did not marry for love. Edna's affection is free only for the one who she really loves - Robert; in the latter part of the novel Edna actually tends to take the ring off, flinging it to the carpet and stomping on it underlying the false feelings upon which their relationship was built. Thus, the ring may symbolize that Edna cannot free herself from the bonds she has formed, and her only escape, if she must insist on escape, is suicide.
             Just as she throws away the ring, Edna in a sweeping passion "seized a glass vase from the table and flung it upon the tiles of the hearth". This shows how frustrated she became when she realized that she had no way out of her enclosed situation and she takes out her anger by shattering the vase.


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