The Awakening Essay, Research Paper

Throughout The Awakening, Kate Chopin conveys her thoughts by utilizing carefully crafted symbols that reflect her characters & # 8217 ; ideas and hereafters. One of the most of import of these symbols, the bird, appears invariably, interwoven in the narrative to supply an penetration to the status of Edna & # 8217 ; s and her battle. At each of the three phases of her battle, birds foreshadow her actions and stress the actions & # 8217 ; importance while the birds & # 8217 ; physical province provides an accurate step of that of Edna & # 8217 ; s.

Early on in the novel, while Edna efforts to get away from society & # 8217 ; s strong appreciation, birds emphasize her web by calculating her actions and supervise her development by reflecting her feelings. The fresh clears with the image of a bird, trapped and unable to pass on: & # 8220 ; a green and xanthous parrot, which hung in the coop outside the door & # 8230 ; could talk a small Spanish, and besides a linguistic communication that cipher understood & # 8221 ; ( 1 ) . Like the bird, Edna feels trapped and believes that society has imprisoned her. Her matrimony to Mr. Pontellier suffocates her and keeps her from being free. At the same clip, she remains unopen apart from society like the bird in the coop, and different thoughts and feelings prevent her from pass oning. The lone individual in society that begins to understand her, Robert, finally decides that he must stay a member of society alternatively of remaining with her. He says that & # 8220 ; you [ Edna ] were non free ; you were Leonce Pontellier & # 8217 ; s married woman & # 8221 ; and that & # 8220 ; [ Robert ] was demented, woolgathering of wild, impossible things & # 8230 ; [ such as ] work forces who had set their married womans free & # 8221 ; ( 108 ) . Robert does non desire to make something wild and unacceptable to society. In a state of affairs analogue to that of Edna & # 8217 ; s, the lone bird that understands the parrot is the mocker ( Reisz ) that & # 8220 ; [ is ] whistling its fluty notes upon the zephyr with crazing continuity & # 8221 ; ( 1 ) . Because the parrot continues to shrill, people move it off from their society: & # 8220 ; [ Mr. Farvial ] insisted upon holding the bird removed and consigned to parts of darkness & # 8221 ; ( 23 ) . Society wants to conceal the bird in darkness, as it wants to make to Edna, in order to maintain the bird from doing jobs. The bird, like Edna, is the lone one & # 8220 ; who possessed sufficient fairness & # 8221 ; to state the truth about society ( 23 ) . Throughout Edna & # 8217 ; s imprisonment, birds reflect her actions and feelings.

Once Edna begins to get away, nevertheless, the birds become of import marks of her success in get awaying and go on to bode her actions. Upon hearing Mademoiselle Reisz drama & # 8220 ; Solitude & # 8221 ; , Edna envisions a free bird for the first clip. She imagin

Es “a adult male standing beside a desolate rock…with hopeless surrender as he looked toward a distant bird flying its flight off from him” ( 25 ) . The visual aspect of a free bird provides an of import mark of Edna’s get downing freedom and success. Besides, the bird leaves a hopeless and resigned adult male as Edna leaves Mr. Pontellier. While Edna relates her love narrative to Mr. Pontellier and Doctor Mendelet, she begins to demo her feeling of freedom by utilizing a lifting bird. She speaks of two lovers who could experience “the whipping of the birds’ wings, lifting startled from among the reeds in the salt-water pools” ( 36 ) . Like the bird, Edna begins to lift and interrupt off from the ironss of society. The bird’s strength symbolizes the fact that Edna is wining in get awaying and come oning toward felicity. Subsequently, when Mademoiselle Reisz tells Edna that “the bird that would surge above the degree field of tradition and bias must hold strong wings, ” she uses birds to calculate Edna’s hereafter and measure Edna’s strength ( 83 ) . In order to surge like a bird, Edna must be strong, and Mademoiselle Reisz realizes that she is non. Reisz says, “it is a sad spectacle to see the doormats bruised, exhausted, fliting back to earth” ( 83 ) . Mademoiselle Reisz understands that Edna can non contend society and uses birds to show this cognition. Finally, Edna moves to what she calls her exhausted “pigeon house.” The name that Edna chooses for this house implies the licking of a bird that, in bend, implies the licking of Edna. During Edna’s flight, birds gauge her success and go on to mirror her actions.

Subsequently, when Edna realizes the hopelessness of her state of affairs, birds act as clear indexs of Edna & # 8217 ; s success in liberating herself and bode her destiny. Upon making the beach, Edna looks around and sees a mark of what is to go of her: & # 8220 ; a bird with a broken wing was crushing the air above, staggering, flap, circling disabled down, down to the H2O & # 8221 ; ( 115 ) . The bird is a concluding portents that reflects Mademoiselle Reisz & # 8217 ; s words: & # 8220 ; it is sad to see the doormats bruised, exhausted, fliting back to Earth & # 8221 ; ( 83 ) . Disabled and weakened because of its broken wing, it falls back to Earth and suffers defeat. Edna shortly does the same when she kills herself because she does non possess & # 8220 ; the brave psyche that dares and defies & # 8221 ; ( 116 ) .

Though at times the symbol is over-used and obvious, birds plays the two of import functions of boding Edna & # 8217 ; s hereafter and estimating her success. While in the beginning, they mirror her actions and picture her feelings, in the terminal, they show her failure in get awaying from society.