What Are The Key Symbols In The Awakening

Motifs in The Awakening play an extremely significant role in identifying the development of characters and contribute to the overall theme of the novel. Birds are one of the first motifs seen in the beginning of the novel starting with a caged parrot yelling “Allez vous-en! Sapristi!” which translates to “Go away! For Heaven’s sake!” This parrot represents Edna’s entrapment in the Victorian lifestyle where women are caged by their husbands and have limited freedom. Birds aren’t meant to be caged, but instead they are meant to soar free and fly, which is what Edna is attempting to do through the course of the novel. Through self discovery and exploration Edna believes that she must move to another house in order to escape her husband and responsibilities. Unfortunately, by moving to the pigeon house she is just trapped in another cage unable to free herself since she is constantly surrounded by reminders of her previous life. Birds serve to represent Edna and her struggle to break away from conventional Victorian society, which ultimately leads to her demise with the author’s final use of bird imagery: “A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water.”

An important theme in Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening is the desire for some women to abandon their dull lives as only mothers and wives. In other words, solitude. The main character, Edna Pontellier is a woman with such desires. She has two sons with her husband, Leonce Pontellier, whom she would rather not be with. The theme mentioned earlier is seen all throughout the novel, by means of several different symbols, including birds. There are three examples of birds used within the story, two of which in the very first chapter. The story opens with a loud parrot repeating the phrase: ‘Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapriste!” (Chopin 1) This roughly translates to “Go away! Go away! For God’s sake!” These words

As a parrot our narrator is forced to come to terms with the fact that no matter how hard he tries to communicate with his wife or other people, it will prove useless and even if the context fit's the conversation, they'd think of it as an humorous coincidence. As our narrator hangs onto and tries to repeat every word to his "wife" says he demonstrates his frustration of being unable to communicate and his yearning for her to realize it is him. Butler also keeps this story very comedic with the fact that he is a bird with a grown man's education and allows him to still think and have emotions similar to a human. Our narrator's wittiness and male pride are still evident in his words no matter how subtle they are. For example, "up, cracker, peanut, open" and even changing the context from "pretty bird to bad bird".

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening explores the effects societal conventions had on women by narrating a tale of how a woman’s pursuit of independence, her sexual identity, and self-expression leads to her solitude and eventual death. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women weren’t expected to be anything else besides a pious wife and mother. They endured male dominance, a lack of independence, and the nonexistence of their sexual freedom. Due to this sad reality, Chopin decided to write a book that confronted these ideas by portraying an unromantic marriage with a woman who challenges the expectations of females during that time. During the beginning of the novel, Edna lived passively within the cult of domesticity. She did what she was expected to do; however, the more she questioned her life, the more she realized her own desires and identity. “At a very

In Kate Chopin’s novel, “The Awakening,” it takes the reader back to the 19th century when society had a defined meaning of what it was meant to be a woman. During the time that Chopin published her book in 1899 women were expected to stay home and take care of their husbands and children. By this means, society had implied that women were only allowed to act certain ways and do certain things; otherwise, they were thought to be senile. In the “The Awakening,” Edna Pontellier undergoes a dramatic change of self-realization, denying her role as a mother and wife. Edna awakens to discover her own identity seeing the world around her in a new perspective forgetting the roles that have been determine by society and ignoring the consequences to

To start, many comparisons can be drawn between Edna and an imprisoned bird. The first lines of the novel describe “[a] green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door” (Chopin 5). Starting at the bird’s physical description, the brightly colored feathers of this creature strongly represent the power and

At the end of the novel, Edna has returned to Grand Isle. She is preparing to go for a swim when she sees a bird with a broken wing. The bird tried to fly but it, “was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water.” This bird symbolizes Edna’s downward spiral which led to her suicide. Mademoiselle Reisz was right to ask if Edna’s wings were strong enough because ultimately, they were not.

	Once Edna begins to escape, however, the birds become important signs of her success in escaping and continue to foreshadow her actions. Upon hearing Mademoiselle Reisz play "Solitude", Edna envisions a free bird for the first time. She imagines "a man standing beside a desolate rock...with hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him" (25). The appearance of a free bird provides an important sign of Edna's beginning freedom and success. Also, the bird leaves a hopeless and resigned man as Edna leaves Mr. Pontellier. While Edna relates her love story to Mr. Pontellier and Doctor Mendelet, she begins to show her feeling of freedom by

Symbolism also plays an enormous role, birds, oceans, and sound are three different interpretations of Edna. Throughout the entire story, caged birds appear quite often resembling the trapped society of Mrs. Pontellier, it also serves as a reminder that she's caged like a bird wanting to escape and also the entrapment of women in that specific time. In the beginning, the parrot talking to Mr. Pontellier saying to leave in French represents as Edna’s

Joyce Dyer comments that the bird and Edna resemble each other in another way; both are meant to be wild, but are domesticated for the sake of the family. She even has Madame Ratignolle “feel [her] shoulder blades, to see if [her] wings were strong” hoping that she too has wings to allow her to fly away from the expectations of tradition set on her (Chopin 300.) While Edna expresses that she is “not thinking of any extraordinary flights,” to Arobin, she does not deny her wish to fly, and escape from society (300). Unlike before, when Edna wishes to have wings, in this instance Edna realizes that she has wings, or the power to escape. This changes her true desires from wanting to fly to not becoming one of the “weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth” (300). Although Edna has not acted upon her thoughts to become free, she is aware that she has the power to escape and live outside of society. Through the bird symbolism, Chopin suggests that women lack the ability to be happy within the circumstances society expects them to maintain.

Related to birds there is another symbol, the flight, which acts as a stand for awakening. This symbolic theme appears constantly throughout the novel. We can see that Edna escapes her life, her children and her husband following her own believes of freedom. In this fragment we can see that Mademoiselle Reisz guides Edna through her awakening, but she cannot help her forever: "she put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong. ‘The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth’” (page 217). In other words, she says that she has to be brave in order to defy society.

The stepping stones in Edna’s awakening can be seen through symbols: birds, clothes, and even the ocean. The symbols of caged birds in The Awakening represent Edna’s entrapment as a wife and mother, along with all of the other Victorian women. When Leonce is sitting by the parrots reading his newspaper, the parrot spoke, “a language which nobody understood” (Chopin 5). Edna, just like the parrot, can not be understood. Edna can not communicate her feelings with others, her feelings being the “language” that nobody

When the saying is translated into English it means, Get out!  Get out!  Damn in!; the caged bird sends the message that Edna needs to get out of her marriage to make everything right in her life.  Like Edna, Nora is reflected as a trapped bird.  Nora, in "A Doll's House," is constantly referred to as a bird by her husband, Helmer.  As in the quote, "And I couldn't wish you anything but just what you are, my sweet little lark" (Ibsen 972).  Helmer show his ownership of Nora and how she is his little bird.  Unlike the image of a caged parrot, Nora is a bird trapped by the dominance of her husband.

In the end the little house will not prove to be the solution that Edna had expected. While the house provides her with independence and isolation, the pigeon house just becomes another cage. It represents her inability to remove herself from her former life. Mademoiselle Reisz provides Edna with music that awakens her soul, advice and letters from Robert. Mademoiselle Reisz views Edna as a bird, who is seeking to fly away from society's conventions and from her responsibilities. She warns Edna that "the bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth." (Chopin pp 82). Mademoiselle Reisz seems to know that Edna will try to fly away from the Creole society, but she does not know whether she will be strong enough to succeed. Mademoiselle in many ways warns Edna that her flight may not be successful however, Edna does not understand the advice that Mademoiselle Reisz supplies: "I am not thinking of any extraordinary flight. I only half comprehend her." (Chopin pp83). In the last scene of the novel: "A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water". (Chopin pp 113) this bird represents Edna's disillusionment as she realizes that her ideals of freedom and independence cannot be reality in the Creole society of 19th century.

This is represented by Madame Lebrun's parrot and mocking-bird. Mr. Pontellier is annoyed by the birds' incessant chatter. However, "they had the right to make all the noise they wished" (43). Edna is caged, and she is doing what ever she can to be free within her limits. Mr. Pontellier is upset by his wife's struggles for freedom. She allows herself to fall in love with Robert, and purchases her own house, despite the wishes of her husband. Just as the birds have no concern that their singing may bother those outside their cage, so Edna does not care that her actions may negatively affect others. Just before Edna kills herself, she sees a "bird with a broken wing...beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water" (175). Edna is this bird; disabled and heading to her death in the water. Her freedom is not total, and causes her death.