Water symbolizes rebirth due to its association with baptism and purification. Consequently, the coastline often acts as a reminder that Edna’s waking is a kind of rebirth. Appropriately, Edna finishes her life at sea: a realm of infinite possibilities becomes a hollow, engulfing vacuum that holds both promise and danger. In its immense grandeur, the ocean symbolizes the power, splendor, and lonesome terror of liberty. Kate Chopin uses water to explore the underlying implications of a narrative (Koffi). Throughout the story, water symbolism serves as both a mirror of the protagonists’ feelings and a component of the female characters’ rebirth and transitions into their independence (Koffi). In addition to societal norms, tales in which a woman has direct control over her life often use water symbolism.
The ocean is constantly mentioned in conjunction with Edna, and she contemplates it as if it were calling her. Edna begins her awakening or the knowledge that life is more than being a submissive wife and mother when she is at the seashore (Koffi). In addition, Edna’s departure from her home life is facilitated by the ocean. She loves her children, but they are a burden, and her husband’s unrelenting evaluation of her capacity to be a decent wife and mother compels her to seek even more independence from that. Here, Edna concentrates on the summer before, when her children spent time with their grandma.
Even to herself, she did not acknowledge that their absence was somewhat reassuring. It seemed to release her from a mission she had naively chosen and for which she had been ill-equipped by Fate. She does not feel she has what it takes to be a wonderful mother, as society expects. Edna attempts to convey the feelings she is beginning to experience while conversing on the beach with one of her coworkers, Madame Adele Ratignolle. Adele insulted her by stating that nothing was more important to her than her children, even though she had earlier said she was unwilling to sacrifice herself for her children.
Work Cited
Koffi, Alexandre. “Th e Sea as Major Symbol in ‘The Awakening’ by Kate Chopin.” ALEXANDRE KOFFI, Web.