Internal Conflict In The Awakening

Personal fulfillment is hard to come by, but once a person realizes what they want, it can drive them insane if they can not achieve it. This self-indulgent awakening is so strong they can be led to death to feel it. An example of this happens to female protagonist, Edna Pontellier, in Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening. Throughout this novel, Edna lives a rather lavish lifestyle and takes care of her two children. Although, even with everything handed to her, she still struggles to truly find herself. The narrater often describes her internal conflict through the symbolism of birds and water.

Edna, a young wife and mother, is often left alone to take care of her two children, while her husband works. For this time period, it is very common

Edna feels no joy being a mother and knows that will never change. The other loyal women in her life often tell her how lucky she is to have her husband and to live the luxurious lifestyle. However, Edna feels trapped, similar to her pet “Parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door…whistling his fluty notes out upon the breeze with maddening persistence” (Chopin 1). Edna and the bird, although, two different species have more in common than they think. The caged bird stands as a symbol on her entrapment as many women felt during the time. The repetitive chirps symbolize the repetitive day to day responsibilities Edna has to withstand. Everyone has a breaking point and hers was rapidly approaching. She was like, “A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling

She feels revived and that is seen through the act of swimming and the water. The island she and her family live on is surrounded by water, at first Edna is afraid to go out and swim. Many of the other people on the island, including her friends tried to teach her how to swim. She tried, but stayed timid and unwilling. Once she gets the hang of going out and swimming, she feels as if the water is calling to her, she feels like “The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation (Chopin 18). This is the beginning of Ednas awakening as a person, she feels the joy and freedom the water is giving her. The sensual and baptismal affect the water has on her allows the rebirth journey to begin, its the firs time through the novel where she starts to feel better. At the end of the book, the sea could no longer save Edna, after telling her friends she was going for a swim, she ran to “The foamy wavelets that curled up to her white feet, and coiled like serpents about her ankles. She walked out…Her arms and legs were growing tired…She looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again” (Chopin 121). Edna knew she was going to kill herself on her way to the