Other essays and articles in the Literature Archives related to this topic include : The Awakening by Kate Chopin: The Process of Edna’s Awakening • Gender and Social Criticism in The Awakening by Kate Chopin • Character Analysis of Edna in “The Awakening” and Discussion About Conflict & Climax • American Literature in Historical Context : 1865 to Roosevelt • Plot Summary of “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin • Critical Analysis of “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin
Many of the deaths in The Awakening are symbolic rather than literal and thus the theme of death in “The Awakening is a metaphor that is constant and multifaceted. However, there are occasional intrusions and brushes with physical death that remind both Edna (full character analysis) and the reader of precisely how precarious and vulnerable Edna’s psychological and social development are, and how fraught with risks her life is. One of the most compelling scenes in which physical death insists itself upon Edna’s and the reader’s consciousness occurs when Edna, giddy with the experience of just having learned how to swim, is overcome by “a feeling of exultation” that compels her to be “daring and reckless” and to challenge herself to “swim far out, where no woman had swum before” (35). It is at this point in the rising action of the plot of “The Awakening” that Edna is experiencing both a kind of metaphorical death and rebirth. The water and her sudden fearlessness is a kind of metaphor for baptism into her new life.
It is worth noting that the metaphor of death emerges again in this important passage from “The Awakening” as she is clearly inviting disaster in this moment of abandon as she swims beyond her comfort zone. The metaphor and theme of death comes again as she is overwhelmed by “A quick vision of death [that] smote her soul, and… appalled and enfeebled her senses….” (35). The vision unnerves her. When she returns to the shore, rather than feeling triumphant, she remains ill at ease and says in one of theimportant quotes from “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin that, “‘I thought I should have perished out there alone,’” she says to her husband, who dismisses her worries by negating her accomplishment, saying “You were not so very far, my dear….” (35). Leonce is speaking of physical distance, of course, but the psychological distance that the swim represented for Edna creates a wider gulf between herself and her husband, another symbol of the death of their marriage, as well as a foreshadowing of Edna’s eventual suicide, thus completing a more full understanding of the many layers of metaphors.
Before Edna gives herself over to the sea, however, she will experience many other types of deaths. Some of these deaths she considers to be good, such as the passage of her old, provincial, conformist self, and other characters notice and affirm that Edna is embracing a new life, having been awakened to her true self. For instance, when Mr. Pontellier visits Dr. Mandelet for a consultation because he believes Edna is unwell and would like the doctor’s advice, Dr. Mandelet responds that he “saw her—I think it was a week ago—walking along Canal Street, the picture of health, it seems to me” (83). Mr. Pontellier concedes that Ednalooks well, but he explains to the doctor that Edna has undergone drastic changes, that the Edna he knew and married has disappeared, has died, replaced by an Edna who has “let the housekeeping go to the dickens” (83) and who is obsessed with “some sort of notion…concerning the eternal rights of women” (83).
Although Mr. Pontellier is understandably confused and troubled about the loss that he is experiencing, the death of the wife that he thought he knew and her replacement by a woman he fails to understand, Edna herself is “excited and in a manner radiant” (88). In fact, she is lit up with the flame of passion and excitement that she feels as she learns more about herself and the world, from which she has largely been isolated (88).
Although the death of her old self and the birth of a new self is exciting for Edna, over the course of The Awakening Edna experiences other deaths that are painful to the point of being unbearable. Most of these deaths are symbolic, but they are no less meaningful to Edna than the extinction of a human life would be. The first of these deaths is when Robert makes the decision to leave Grand Isle before the Pontelliers’ vacation ends. When Madame Reisz, who becomes Edna’s mentor and confidant, asks Edna, “‘Do you miss your friend greatly?’”, Edna does not respond, but she does not need to do so. The narrator explains how “Robert’s going had some way taken the brightness, the color, the meaning out of everything” (58).
