The Symbols In The Awakening English Literature Essay

The Symbols In The Awakening English Literature EssayIn Kate Chopins The Awakening, the underlying inwardness is imparted to the ref by dint of the work of explicit attri notwithstandingeism. The major role of the use of symbolism in the impudent is to attempt to draw a get in touch between the world that Edna knows and her several awakenings and make that link more goodish and compelling. Analyzed in this essay are three prominent symbols of evoke which are shuckss, the nautical and the tins Edna resides in. The avian all in allusions and symbols that are present throughout the level take to heart to represent the energy to fly and the freedom it enables. The references to navals and seas at heart the brisk are symbolic of freedom and empowerment as it relates to Edna. Further familys impart the reader to observe the different transformations that Edna undergoes. The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, is filled with military personnely symbols and motifs that a llow the reader to develop a deeper understanding of its message.The counterbalance symbol to be analyzed is the recurring sign of maams present throughout the fabrication. When birds step up in the novel they serve as a consideration of Ednas self, and her thoughts. The novel opens not with a main character speaking and with parrot, on the wholeez vous-en Allez vous-en Sapristi (pp. 3). This resolution from the bird translates to Go off Go away For heavens involvement It merchant ship be inferred that these lines are representative of the thoughts that are passing through Ednas mind for much of the novel. Much handle the parrot which could speak a little Spanish, and similarly a language which nobody understood, (pp. 3) Edna is unable to glide by her true passions and her true feelings to anyone else because they could not understand. Edna wishes to abandon her role as a compliant wife, and acquiescent m other that the Creole society demands she be. Further the bird discussed higher up is caged symbolizing the entrapment of Edna by society and its expectations for females of that era. perhaps the only other character in the novel that understands Edna is Mademoiselle Reisz, who stirs Ednas soul with music, and gives advice to her. Edna informs Arobin that Mademoiselle Reisz personate her fortify around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my annexs were strong, she said, The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must shake strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering cover charge to earth. (pp. 103)It appears that Reisz knows in the leadhand that Edna will attempt to fly and expresses an uncertainty as to whether or not Edna is strong enough to succeed. Mademoiselle Reisz is warning Edna in this departure that her flight may ultimately end in failure but Edna does not receive this message for she is not thinking of any one(prenominal) flights. I only half c omprehend her. Reisz is attempting to help her with this flight by inferring that she is perhaps not strong enough, and may fail but it go on deaf ears as Edna does not comprehend what Reisz is trying to do. The reader encounters birds towards the conclusion of the novel during a pivotal moment in Ednas life, All along the white beach, up and down, thither was no living subject in sight. A bird with a broken wing was shell the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water. (pp. 113) Edna observes this as she is about to walk into the ocean and go through her final awakening. This bird with a broken wing embodies Edna representing that she, much like the bird, is unable to fly away and escape from the things that hold in her. Further it also illustrates that Edna is already dead before she enters the water like the bird that is doomed to death.The second symbol to be analyzed is the frequent appearance of the ocean/sea. Of all the symbols in the novel , the ocean appears most regularly. Edna consistently connects the ocean with a certain personal free will unconstipated when she is a child, a meadow seemed as big as the oceanshe threw out her arms as if submergeming when she walked. (pp. 21) Clearly Edna feels freedom and excitement in the above passage illustrated through the reference to the wide open ocean. Further, it is in the ocean located off from the Grand Isle where we observe on of Ednas awakenings. in the lead this awakening she has already learned how to swim, and when she attempts to swim out into the ocean for the first time a certain metamorphosis occurs, A feeling of jubilation overtook herShe grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman has swum before. (pp. 37) This eyeshot is critically heavy in the progression of the novel because with her discovery of her ability to swim she also realizes that her life is an empty shell. Perhaps this realization serve s to answer her in the changes that she will encounter later in the novel. But there is an aspect of foreshadowment in the line she grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. Though swimming in the ocean gives her many positive feelings of freedom she has not the strength to swim for longer periods of time and as a result will drown. Her desire to swim far out, where no woman has swum before is a distinguished desire to escape from her entrapment due to Creole society, and she somewhat accomplishes this wish but ultimately fails with her demise. The ocean in the novel allows Edna some of the feelings of freedom, but it also serves as an instrument of her demise Exhaustion was pressing upon and over possessing her. Good-bye, because I love you He did not know he did not understand. He would never understand it was too late the shore was far hobo her, and her strength was gone. (pp. 116) Edna believes that the ocean allows her to express herself and escape from the po wer that is exenterated over her by society. But she realizes that no matter what she attempts to do she will always be trapped by society, for she lacks the ability to change the way her life is. aft(prenominal) coming to this realization she decides that she will retire where she feels the most free and away from being influenced into the ocean.The third and final symbol to be analyzed in this paper is the dynamic symbolism of the houses that Edna resides in. These houses are a direct reflection of the numerous mental and emotional states that Edna experiences throughout her journey. The cottages that are located on the Grand Isle suck up several symbolic meanings. They serve as separate cages for Edna and also are a reflection of the families that reside within them. Further, all of the cottages at places like this are nearly identical suggesting that all families that dwell in them are identical according to the traditions of the Creole society. Perhaps the most iconic and imp ortant house that is encountered during the novel is Ednas pigeon-house. The imagery relating to this house instantly gives the reader insight into why this house is so important to Edna, In a little four-room house around the corner. It looks so cozy, so inviting and restful. (pp. 79) This pigeon house serves to provide Edna with the comfort and independence that her old house with her husband never provided. Her freedom she experiences allows her to realize how much control she can have over her life, she had resolved never again to belong to another than herself. (pp. 80) This can be considered one of her many awakenings for she realizes that she does not need a man in order to fulfill and complete her life. It is also important to bankers bill the contrast from her previous feelings to the new feelings and abilities that arise after Edna moves into the pigeon house before when she kisses Arobin in the house of her husband she has feelings of reproach looking at her from the o utside(a) things around her which he had provided for her external existence. (pp. 84) Yet when she engages with Arobin at her new pigeon-house she experiences no feelings of reproach or regret. This illustrates how she is now more free in this house than she has been in any other setting.There are many symbols in the novel The Awakening, and in this essay three of the most prominent have been examined leading us to a huge conclusion. Clearly it is necessary in this novel, and most others to analyze and apply the occurrences and meanings behind symbols scattered throughout the work. Birds serve as an allusion to Edna herself and as an instrument of foreshadowment in regards to her own demise. The ocean is use numerous times throughout the novel as a starting time of freedom and self expression that allow Edna a release from everything departure on in her life. The last symbol was the many houses that Edna was in during the novel that were representative of her current feelings and were a reflection of her. Without the analysis and acknowledgment of these symbols the baloney becomes just a simple piece of writing and lacks significant deeper meanings.