The Awakenings Symbolic Significance Of The Sea :: essays research papers fc

&65279In the novel, The Awakening, Kate Chopin tells the story of a young married woman,Edna Pontellier, who, while enjoying her pass holidays at a cottage on a beach with herfamily, meets a young man by the name of Robert Lebrun. Edna, who is not really in honor withher husband, begins to have mixed feelings and, as a result, begins to realize who she unfeignedly is.Edna feels that something is lacking in her life. The author uses the ocean to personify andsymbolize what is absentminded in Ednas life--the love of a man and immunity of the soul. On several occasions Chopin uses the sea as a personification of Ednas longing for thelove of a man. Although Edna is married, she does not have the feelings for her husband which cooccur with being in love. In matchless example, Chopin describes the sea The voice of the sea isseductive never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmur voweling, inviting the soul to wander for aspell in abysses of solitude, to lose itself in mazes of conte mplation (13). The sea calls to EdnaThe voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The run into of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body inits soft , close handle (13). Chopin is describing the sea as though it was a man with whomEdna is in love and for whom she feels a strong attraction, not just someone she can profit loveto but someone she can loose herself in. Later, the young man, Robert Lebrun, who is inspiration upall these feelings in Edna, asks her if she is going swimming she answers him no and tells himshe is also tired. Chopin describes Ednas actions afterwards Her glance wandered from hisface away toward the Gulf, whose sonorous murmur reached her like a loving but imperativeentreaty (12). Chopin is project Ednas feelings for Robert, whether Edna is conscious ofthese feelings or not, onto the sea because a part of Edna does indirect request to go swimming with him.Edna also has a strong need for freedom and Chopin, with respect to Ednas character,makes reference to the sea to express this need. On one occasion, Edna and Madame Ratignolle,her neighbour for the summer, are sunbathing on the beach. Madame asks Edna to where hermind is wandering. Edna tells her the ocean is bringing subscribe a memory of a field in Kentuckywhich, as a child, she had run through with arms stretched out in the breeze as though swimming