Law and Legal Issues

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Law and Legal Issues

Many novels and works of literature end with somewhat ambiguous endings in terms of what happened to the characters, the decisions they make and even what has already happened in the story. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is one example of such a novel. The novel ends with the protagonist, Edna Pontellier, swimming out in the ocean with the intention of drowning. She thinks of her husband and how dull and unfulfilling their marriage has been. Robert, her young lover who awakens sexual desires in her, also crosses her mind. Robert had left her a note when he was leaving, and this causer her great agony. Her mind further wandered and thought of what her husband would say when he found her dead, drowned body. He would say, “How could she have gone swimming without anything on?’ She also thought about what the people would say on this issue. As she contemplates, she drowns and dies. This paper shall discuss the ambiguous significance of Edna’s suicide.

The ending of The Awakening with Edna’s death takes one on an emotional rollercoaster. As the last chapter begins, Edna seems pretty cheerful and chatty with those around her. She asks Victor Lebrun for dinner and asks him to prepare a place for her to spend the night. This is not the kind of behaviour exhibited by a person intending to commit suicide. Afterwards, Edna heads to the seashore, takes off her bathing suit and feels amazing.

But when she was there beside the sea, absolutely alone, she cast the unpleasant, pricking garment from her, and for the first time in her life, she stood naked in the open hair, at the mercy of the sun, the breeze that beat upon her, and the waves that invited her. How strange and awful it seemed to stand naked under the sky! How delicious! She felt like some new-born creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known (Chopin, 125).

As Edna swims in the sea, she is overwhelmed by her thoughts, and she gets tired: ‘Her arms and legs were growing tired’ (Chopin 125) and exhausted of swimming ‘Exhaustion was pressing upon and overpowering her’ (Chopin, 125). Without explicitly mentioning it in the novel, Edna dies. The question is, does she die intentionally? The question of ambiguity is brought out when one is left wondering whether her suicide is her freeing herself from societal constraints and expectations or whether Edna’s awakening is a decline into insanity. Edna gives herself up to the ocean, a symbol of returning to the womb.

Edna had lived a life of oppression, and at the beginning of the story, she was impulsive and naïve. Her main goal was her pleasure, and she acted in it impulsively. Her affair with Robert is short-lived once she realizes that she cannot be married and keep the affair going. As she ponders over her situation, she realizes that she is not owned by anyone, not her children or her husband. “I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose” (Chopin 102). Edna asserts her freedom and claims her independence from both men. She also decides not to remarry and leaves her children for her own reasons. This selfish yet noble act is eye-opening and liberating for Edna.

At this point, Edna’s thoughts have shifted from impulsive to well-thought of decisions. Her decision to swim far out where no woman had swum before (Chopin, 27) is her awakening and an attempt to reach new heights that no woman had done previously. Wolkenfeld  (241) asserts that Edna’s awakening comes with limited options that lead to her ultimate demise. She could live a life of solitude like Mademoiselle Reisz or go back to her spouse and children. Wolkenfeld (243) further adds that none of these choices seemed feasible to Edna. Left with no choices, we see the price of Edna’s awakening; she has no society to go back to. The ambiguity comes out clearly as we wonder if it would have been better if Edna had not experienced the awakening? The real ambiguity is in deciding whether Edna’s awakening was tragic or liberating.

In conclusion, the novel leaves one with mind-boggling thoughts on the price of liberation and the search for personal freedom. Edna’s decision was brave, but it leaves the question of whether we are strong enough to endure being ostracized by society to enjoy personal freedom.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. A Norton Critical Edition:  Kate Chopin:  The  Awakening. Ed. Margo Culley. 2nd ed. New York:  W.W. Norton, 1994.   3-109.

Wolkenfeld, Suzanne. “Edna’s Suicide: The Problem of the One and the Many.”  A  Norton Critical Edition:  Kate Chopin:  The Awakening. Ed. Margo Culley. New  York:  W.W. Norton, 2014.  241-247