the awakening

Owning of self, through dying Throughout Kate Chopin’s masterpiece work the protagonist Edna Pontellier slowly undergoes her own very personal and private awakening. The nature of Edna's awakening stems from her feelings of being trapped forever in her societal roles of wife and mother. Edna, beginning with her infatuation with Robert Lebrun, slowly becomes consumed with her quest to regain her own self worth. Edna longs to live her life without the constraints of …

…through death, death in which she faces alone. She swims out into the ocean completely nude representing her being reborn through her dying. In the end Edna is naked as she came into the world. Edna in dying is taking the ultimate control of her life; in the only way she can during a time when males ruled society. Edna would never let her beliefs be compromised in the end for any reason. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**