The Sea's Rebirth

Vincent Luu 3/30/08

Mr. Earley English 11 H

The Sea’s Rebirth

In The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier is essentially “awakened” by the sea. The sea is used to represent Edna’s longing to be free and find her identity. The sea was also represented as a rebirth, and was no coincidence that the sea begins Edna’s story and also ends the novel. Edna was transformed by the sea, and after this life-changing transformation, she could not go back to her old life. The physical presence and the images of the sea are also used to contrast the bleakness she feels toward her family life. Edna’s final return to the sea can be seen as Edna’s true feelings that the sea is the only place that she can truly be herself and actually be free from society’s restraints. The sea is used as a symbol of Edna’s true identity, freedom, and rebirth from the minute she learns to swim until she uses the sea as her final resting place to finally be at peace.

Edna immediately feels the change in her soul and body when she takes her first strokes into the sea. Edna finally gets a taste of freedom and the power she has within herself. She recalls, “A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul….She wanted to swim out far, where no woman had swum before” (27). Her excitement comes from the “power” that she recently received, which can be inferred as that Edna never really has been “in control” of herself. When she mentions “her soul”, it shows that her feelings go well beyond the joy of being able to swim. As Edna swims out farther, “She turned her face seaward to gather in an expression of space and solitude…. As she swam, she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself” (28). The farther Edna swam away from the people on the beach, as shown by “solitude”, the closer she is to the “unlimited” or the identity that she is trying to reach. In that instant, the sea becomes Edna’s sanctuary where she can truly “lose” her superficial self. All that remains is her essence and power that she now solely has over herself.

Later on in the novel, Edna’s personification of the sea reflects her awareness of her own identity. It states that, “Her glance wandered from his face away toward the Gulf, whose sonorous murmur reached her like a loving but imperative entreaty” (31). The “murmur” is described as “sonorous”, these statements together can be implied to mean that although the voice is somewhat weak, it has a lot of strength behind it. You can tell that since there is an “imperative entreaty” you can still tell that the message is unclear but still strong. Edna can sense something is afoot, but she cannot put a name on that certain quality and “it served but to bewilder her” (13). A little later, the sea gives more form to Edna’s thoughts and feelings. “The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in the abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation. The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace” (13). Edna is never mentioned within these sentences. Instead, when Chopin uses subjects like “the soul” and “the body”, it gives the sea even more power because it applies, not only to Edna, but to all souls and bodies. The delicate and soft ways of describing the ocean, shows how returning to the ocean is similar to going back to the basic identity of a person.

When Edna recalls her the times she had as a child growing up in Kentucky, the ocean also shows up there as a symbol as well.

“…of a summer day in Kentucky, of a meadow that seemed as big as the ocean to the very little girl walking through the grass, which was higher than her waist. She threw out her arms as if swimming when she walked, beating the tall grass as one strikes out in the water (16).

The words “ocean”, “swimming” and “water” conjures images of the sea. It is also key to notice that, although Edna is narrating this passage,