The Awakening Symbolism

Kate Chopin's The Awakening is a novel full of symbolism; even down to the title. By giving this novel the title, it is great symbolism of what the story will be about. The title gives a vague mental picture for you that cannot be fully understood until the reader has finished reading. It is also full of other symbolisms, such as clothes, houses, birds, swims, and the ocean. All of these elements are powerful and add great meaning to the characters and the novel itself. After finishing, The Awakening, the reader will understand that the title is about the main character, Edna Pontellier, and her sexual awakening and her figurative rebirth. One of the first images of symbolism in The Awakening is birds, and they are evident and narrative from

These houses are her home in New Orleans with her family, the vacation house in Grand Isle, the ‘pigeon house’, and the house on Cheniere Caminada where she falls asleep (Wyatt). These houses are symbols to represents different phases Edna goes through in her awakening. The house in Grand Isle is full of symbolisms for domesticity. Pianos, children, women, and porches are possessions of the domesticity. This is the first place we are visited with Edna, and she is constricted within this cage of Creole roles of wife and mother. The house on Cheniere Caminada where Edna falls asleep represents the change Edna is experiencing in her awakening. It is also a home where the women can go to escape (Wyatt). This is the house where Edna obtains the knowledge about her own body and soul. The New Orleans house is the representation of cultural rules and life duties. Edna is required to be the perfect hostess, specifically by her husband. However, she does not like this role and the rules and attempts to flee from this cultural cage to her ‘pigeon house.’ Ultimately, Edna does not feel “at home” anywhere. Death seems to be the only thing that can offer a real home to her. The feelings of relief, freedom, and