How Does Kate Chopin Use Birds In The Awakening

When a bird is driven to the edge of a cliff, it flies to save its life. When a bird cannot take flight to escape, it may jump off of the cliff rather than be subdued. Similarly, Kate Chopin describes how a trapped and embittered woman fights to free herself from a miserable life. However, the woman's ultimate fate is to disappear into the sea, sinking like a downed sparrow. A tragic and introspective tale about a woman's suffering in the late 19th century, The Awakening discusses love, marriage, infidelity, femininity, and suicide. Kate Chopin primarily uses birds as symbols in The Awakening to illustrate confinement, lack of independence, and societal expectations. Chopin tactfully uses birds in The Awakening to represent femininity and

The house appears freeing and vivacious on a superficial level, but further examination reveals underlying captivity. The pigeon house embodies Edna's inability to fully separate from her former family, a sense of forced domesticity, and unintentional dehumanization. Zhang Yan-hua of the Weifang Medical University explains that "[Edna] regarded the sacred marriage as shackles" (3). She proceeds to describe Edna's resignation to exist as property (3). Under obligation, Edna remains close enough to keep in contact with her husband and children. As much as she would have liked to depart entirely (CITE), the pigeon house is as much of an escape as she can muster. Chopin indicates that Edna does not wish to remain with her husband (Cite) and has had two significant affairs (Cite, Cite). In the late 1800s, women who abandoned their husbands and children would have been deemed pariahs, and Edna experiences great reservations about cutting ties with her husband and offspring completely (CITE). Physically, the pigeon house presents a sense of forced domesticity. Said to resemble a "dovecote" kept by the upper classes (CITE), the pigeon house implies that Edna's value is for sport or show rather than by any merit of her own. The

These long-suffering and self-sacrificial comparisons have demeaning connotations, ultimately projecting subservience and tractability onto women. One of the avian images concerns the mother-woman archetype, referenced on page 12. Chopin writes Edna's bitter soliloquy with descriptions of "[mother-women] fluttering around with extended, protecting wings [to guard] their precious brood" (12). The birdlike description of the ideal mother reinforces the feminine stereotype that Chopin presents through birds. Because Edna perceives mother-womanhood as a lonely, all-encompassing task, her train of thought is indubitably bitter. Chopin includes another bird metaphor in a conversation between Edna and Alcee Arobin, one of her lovers. Edna muses about a prior exchange with Mademoiselle Reisz, telling Alcee how Reisz compared Edna to a bird, one that must "soar above the level plane of tradition a prejudice" (88) with "strong wings" (88). Reisz recognizes the struggle within Edna, encouraging escape, but Edna turns down the notion even though she notes later that she did not fully understand Reisz's comment at the time. Chopin indicates that Reisz metacognitively understands Edna's femininity better than Edna does. Edna continues to ponder the metaphor, marking a turning point in the story where she takes charge of her