Essay about Symbolism in the Awakening by Kate Chopin

Words: 1355
Pages: 6
Open Document
Symbolism in The Awakening by Kate Chopin

The Awakening by Kate Chopin is a novel full of symbolism which reveals much of the deeper meaning in the story. Within each narrative segment there is often a symbol that helps to add meaning to the text, and the understanding of these symbols is essential to a full appreciation of the story. These symbolic elements help the reader to make a connection between Edna’s world and her eventual awakening. Throughout the novel there are a huge number of symbols but three of the most meaningful symbols used are birds, houses and the ocean.

Birds often represent freedom and the ability to fly but are also symbols for something that goes one step further. Several kinds of birds appear throughout …show more content…
So Edna clearly lacks those strong wings and she finally drowns in the sea.
There are also others interpretations such as the one that says that Edna’s suicide is a rejection of Victorian womanhood and the bird’s fall clearly represents the fall of convention achieved by Edna’s death.

Houses reflect the soul of the inhabitant and the fact that Edna has several houses reflects the idea that she’s changing her state of mind, her progress in her awakening. There are four important houses throughout the novel: the one on Grand Isle, the one in New Orleans, the one on Chênière Caminada and the pigeon house. The first two houses represent repression for Edna, as if it were cages. On Grand Isle she’s expected to be a proper ‘mother-woman’ and in New Orleans to be the perfect social hostess. The other two houses are places of freedom, on Chênière Caminada she can dream whatever she wants and on the pigeon house she can create her own world.

On Grand Isle the vacationer’s cottages are also symbolic. They are the representation of the families which stay there. All of them are identical, meaning that all the families which stay on the cottages are stereotypes of an upper-class family at that moment. Edna doesn’t like being in the cottages, she prefers spending her time on the
Show More

Related Documents: Essay about Symbolism in the Awakening by Kate Chopin

Masculinity In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

IR Journal #2, The Awakening Female, approximately half of the world's population can identify easily with this word. Despite the numbers, women value as a minority despite their importance to all of the human populace. Kate Chopin explicated on the realization a woman reached in her life, a realization of the inequality of her own situation, in The Awakening. Kate Chopin conveys the bearings of women in the 19th century through symbolism. Chopin uses symbolism through cigars that represent…

Words 569 - Pages 3

How Did Kate Chopin Influence American Literature

Literature. Kate Chopin was an author that positively influenced American Literature. Kate Chopin was a feminist author that influenced American Literature by Self Identity and Symbolism. To begin, Kate Chopin, also known as Kate O’Flaherty, did not have the easiest childhood. Her sisters died during infancy and all her brothers died in their early twenties. Kate’s dad died in a train accident causing her to be home schooled. Kate’s great grandmother taught her everything she knew; when Kate returned…

Words 547 - Pages 3

The Awakening And Their Eyes Were Watching God Character Analysis

successful novel. In The Awakening and Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main protagonists in each story were developed extensively as they were the main connection to the reader. Edna Pontellier and Janie Starks both can be characterized as being dynamic as they grow throughout their respective novels. The final product of this development is two profound characters that do not reveal all of themselves to the other characters in their story. Through third person perspectives and symbolism, Edna and Janie…

Words 1008 - Pages 5

Bird Symbolism In The Awakening

In her acclaimed novel The Awakening, American author Kate Chopin masterfully uses symbolism to portray Victorian women as entrapped victims of society. Though she uses a wide variety of imagery and symbolism, Chopin specifically uses birds to depict her the character Edna Pontellier and her attempt to escape the cage of societies expectations. Chopin first uses the bird as a symbol in the opening scene of her novel, therefore setting the tone for the remainder of the work. Chapter one begins with…

Words 653 - Pages 3

Essay on

The Awakening Reviews on “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin Essay April 30, 2013 This paper is a discussion regarding two reviews of The Awakening. A woman’s view of The Awakening compared to a man’s is very different. Katy (female reviewer) states, “She went a bit further than I would be comfortable with. She became so focused on herself that she seemed to neglect her children and didn’t consider the consequences of her choices” (Katy 2010). The male reviewer (Brother Odd) on the other hand…

Words 1320 - Pages 6

Symbolism In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

oppression of expression and free thought. Kate Chopin, in her fictional novel The Awakening explores what it means to be a Victorian woman. She does so through the romance, thoughts, love, and exploits of young woman Edna Pontellier, highlighting the ways in which she is controlled and her childlike renewal, or awakening, into becoming a free-thinking individual. Chopin successfully does this through rhetoric and stylistic strategies such as anecdote, symbolism, allegory, and metaphor. However, one metaphor…

Words 676 - Pages 3

Societal Expectations Of Women In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

expectations which is revealed in the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin. This novel is about a woman named Edna Pontellier who goes against society and what it expects from women and along the way she discovers her true self free from her role as a mother and a wife. Kate Chopin utilizes societies rules today to further analyze that women should be their own, self-defined individual by disregarding what society expects from women through the relationship between…

Words 1817 - Pages 8

Figurative Language In The Awakening

The Awakening by Kate Chopin is a story illustrating the life of a woman in the south during the turn of the 20th century. Edna Pontellier is a non mother-woman who is on a journey of self discovery. At the start of the story, Edna is the wife of a businessman in Louisiana and a mother. They went on vacation at Grand isle, while they were there she met a man name Robert Lebrun. She had a romantic relationship with him and during this she realizes that her marriage is not going great and that she…

Words 701 - Pages 3

The Sea in The Awakening Essay

6 November 2014 La mer In literacy, the sea seems to be used as a symbol lots of times. This has proven to be the case, in The Awakening by Kate Chopin, where the author used the sea as a symbol­ it was referred to at the beginning, when the awakening for Edna first started; it was also the final destination for Edna. The story is rich in description and uses a lot of symbolism. The sea symbolizes both the birth and death of the ideas of freedom, liberalism, and romanticism; the sea interestingly…

Words 981 - Pages 4

awakening essay

“Kate Chopin uses powerful and significant symbolism in The Awakening to depict the feminist idea involving women’s longing for sexual and personal emancipation through the development of the main character, Edna Pontellier”1 Explore the relevance of this statement to Edna’s Awakening and show how your reading of the yellow wallpaper illuminates this understanding. The Victorian era was an age of confinement for women in their rights and their social lives, but it was perhaps the beginning of the…

Words 1475 - Pages 6