A Sea Change. An Examination of the Imagery in Chopin's The Awakening

Abstract

The Awakening is Kate Chopin's tale of a woman seeking her individuation and selffulfillment in a male-dominated society – it is a novel about female emancipation. The aim of this essay is to examine the imagery in The Awakening in order to see how the protagonist, Edna Pontellier, and her struggle for individuation are depicted. This will be done making use of arguments and theories from a range of different feminist critics and theoreticians with the purpose of showing different aspects of female emancipation. Primarily, the essay will focus on symbols of coming-to-consciousness in a patriarchal society, and explore how the turn-of-thecentury social structure is depicted. The essay will point at the ambiguity surrounding Edna's awakening, and the fact that there are no straight answers to if Edna truly awakes or not. It will show that the protagonist's journey to self-fulfillment is clearly mirrored in the imagery, and that it contains symbols of empowerment, boundary, and defeat.