In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, the sea plays an important role in the ‘awakening’ of Edna Pontellier. The sea is the physical representation of Edna’s desire to find her own freedom and identity. It is no coincidence that the sea appears in both the beginning and the end of the novel because once she was transformed by the sea, she could not go back to her old life.
Edna’s feelings toward the physical presence and the images of the sea are also used to contrast the despondency she feels toward her family life. Edna’s final return to the sea provides further evidence to support the fact that Edna views the sea as a place where her own identity is not obscured but highlighted.
In the beginning of the novel, Edna’s personification of the sea reflects on her awareness of her own identity. The text reads, “Her glance wandered from his face away toward the Gulf, whose sonorous murmur reached her like a loving but imperative entreaty.”[1]The “murmur” is described as “sonorous”, showing that though the voice is unclear, the strength of it is strong.
Also, the “imperative entreaty” is not explained any further, it does not say what the sea is entreating Edna to do. Thus it can be seen that the message Edna is receiving is unclear, but strong. Edna is aware, but she cannot put a name to that awareness, and “it served but to bewilder her” (13).
A short while later, in the mist of Edna’s revelation, the sea appear again to give 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).
Nowhere in the two paragraphs is Edna specifically indicated. Instead, the text contains generalized subjects, such as “the soul” and “the body”. This serves to give the sea even more power because it does not apply its voice or its touch to only Edna, but it is capable of exerting its control to other souls and bodies.
In addition to its universal effect, the fact that the sea is capable of seducing both “the soul” and “the body” at the same time also shows how encompassing its power is. Also, the words being used to describe the sea, such as “seductive”, “murmuring”, “soft”, and “sensuous” is decidedly feminine.
This, along with the images that it provides with “abysses of solitude” and “enfolding the body”, and the water of the ocean, is an allusion to the womb. It shows how returning to the ocean is like returning to the very basic identity of a person. So not only is the sea’s power a metaphor for the power that Edna’s revelation has over her, the sea also indicates the elemental nature of the revelation by simultaneously referring back to the womb.
The image of the ocean also turns up in Edna’s recollection of her childhood. She remembers,
…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).
Words such as “ocean”, “swimming” and “water” generate the image of the sea. Furthermore, although Edna is referring to herself in this memory, she narrates the account in the third person point of view by using the pronoun “she” and “the very little girl”. This shows how Edna has become distant to the little girl that she was.
In addition, the connotation of the words “threw out”, “beating”, and “strikes” indicates that the girl was fearless and was embracing the challenge before her. By distancing the girl at this point, Edna inadvertently shows that she does not possess the same fearlessness. Edna continues her narrative by saying, “Sometimes I feel this summer as if I were walking through the green meadow again; idly, aimlessly, unthinking and unguided” (16).
The last four words reinforce the idea that identity is something that exists without rules, motivations or preconceived thought, just like a baby in the womb is without rules, motivations, or preconceived thought. In Edna’s case, her identity can only be achieved without concerns for her children or her husband.
Madame Ratignolle, who can be described as one of those women, “…who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals…” (8) provides a contrast to Edna. By putting “idolizing” and “worshiping”, in juxtaposition with “to efface themselves as individuals”, the text indicates these actions occur concurrently and thus Edna must do the opposite in order to be an individual. When Edna related her recollection of the ocean-like green meadow to her current situation, the text is foreshadowing the regaining of her individuality.
When Edna finally learns how to swim, she 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 “exultation” comes from the “power” that she newly received, which means as if she has never been in control. The mention of “her soul” shows that her feeling transcends beyond the joy of being able to swim.
As Edna swims out farther, the text reads, “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 is away from the people on the beach, as shown by “solitude”, the closer she is to the “unlimited”. In that instant, the sea becomes the sanctuary in which Edna can “lose” her superficial self. Then there is nothing left but the essence of her being and the power she has over herself.
Toward the end of the novel, Edna goes back to the beach. Once again, the sea beckons her, “The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude” (115). This line is identical to the one right after Edna’s revelation, except this time, Edna accepted the invitation, showing that she finally understands the full extent of the price of her identity.
The text reads, “How strange and awful it seemed to stand naked under the sky! How delicious! She felt like some new-born creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known” (115). The “new-born” supports the imagery of the womb from the sea. By using “familiar” and “never known” together, the text indicates that Edna never feels she truly understands the world around her until she is able to understand herself.
Her action triggers another memory, “She did not look back now, but went on and on, thinking of the blue-grass meadow that she had traversed when a little child, believe it had no beginning and no end” (116). By returning to the sea, Edna induces a flashback that enables her to return to being that fearless little girl, who is not afraid, who “did not look back” and “went on and on”.
Edna does not want to live vicariously through others, she wants to live for herself, for her essential individuality. Edna’s stifling marriage obscures her individuality, which only her contemplation in solitude can recover. The ocean not only presents to Edna an opportunity for self reflection, but it also helps Edna discovery the very basic elements of her identity. By finally embracing the sea, she is asserting that no one can possess her but her own self.
[1] Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Dover Publications, Inc. New York, NY 1993. p. 12.