Edna’s Development in The Awakening by Kate Chopin Essay Example

Chopin utilizes the ocean in Grand Isle when delineating Edna's reactions to each situation and the impact these actions carry to progress the story. By doing this, Chopin demonstrates her control over each element in the story including something as broad as setting. Specifically, Edna’s development and eventual separation from the people surrounding her is due to the influence of setting and where it leads her. Her growth throughout the novel is apparent because of where the novel begins and ends in a literal sense; particularly, certain scenes that focus heavily on descriptions of the ocean and how the ambiance plays into Edna’s character and the novel’s ending. Moreover, Chopin’s wide and involved use of setting brings the novel to a deserving end, paralleled with how it began. 

The Awakening starts in Grand Isle, having many scenes take place at the ocean. To develop a further understanding of the relationships of Edna, Chopin embellishes the descriptions and influences of the ocean in comparison to other settings around her. The first chapter shows us that a certain affinity from the beach shifts when Edna and Robert join Mr. Pontellier at his cottage, “[Edna] looked across at Robert and began to laugh [thinking about the beach]...It was some utter nonsense...they both tried to relate it at once,” but now in a different setting, “it did not seem half so amusing” (Chopin 2). This “nonsense” moment causes a connection between Edna and Robert that is parallel to the ocean. The way Edna feels about the ocean, the sea is “seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander”  and Robert, “wishing to go to the beach with [him]... a certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her,— a light which, showing the way, forbids it” foretells of Edna’s inner struggle to fight against her true tempting desires (9). Because of her desires, Edna feels both tempted by the ocean and by Robert. Compared to the beach, Edna’s actions towards Robert contrast to those at the Pontellier’s cottage near the end of chapter eleven. Her short responses and indifferent attitude toward Robert highlight a change of temperament in response to a change of location. Edna’s consciousness is occupied with the connections to her scenery that are taking part in her comprehension of this moment. In short, this location changes the way she reacts to Robert because of the location’s notions to how she feels about him versus how she feels about Leonce. She ends up coming to the conclusion that this scenery reminds her of reality, “[She] began to feel like one who awakens gradually out of a dream,” and her marriage, completely contrasted to the ocean (23). These feelings begin to arouse more in Edna as the story progresses through different settings; ultimately, Edna is faced with decisions about her life because of the feelings, decisions that will alter her reality. Chopin displays control over the setting by fashioning complex, intertwining connections between Edna’s view of relationships compared to the setting. Therefore, it can be inferred that, the chief moments leading up to Edna’s ending are due in part to the locations that abridge emotions with people.

The ocean plays a large role in the growth of the main character’s personality, as well. When looking at features of Edna’s nature likened to the novel and its settings, one must dive into how scenery affects her perception of herself and others. Chopin’s descriptions of the ocean in chapter ten, specifically, create an ambiance that Edna reacts to. Her reactions, therefore, progressing the novel. Chopin personifies the ocean to visualize how the setting acts as a developer of Edna, “The sea was quiet now and swelled lazily in broad billows that ... that coiled back like slow, white serpents” (19). By describing this location as mysterious and dark, the author can compare it to the actions Edna takes in response to the atmosphere. The ocean creates a tone where Edna will most likely go into fight or flight mode. In response, Edna becomes like a “little tottering, stumbling, clutching child, who of a sudden realizes its powers, and walks for the first time alone”(19). She chooses to respond by bravely forcing herself not to fear the ocean, even if she is hesitant. Although she is “stumbling,” she has also finally “[realized her] powers” in reference to her self-dependence (19).  Furthermore, Edna takes control of herself at the ocean, and responds to the setting’s tone, beginning the process of discovering who she is throughout the novel.

After these moments on Grand Isle, the story shifts to New Orleans where most of the novel is held; however, the conclusion of The Awakening is strategically placed by Chopin back at the ocean in Grand Isle. The setting here impacts the understanding of all the scenes and actions of Edna throughout the entirety of the novel because of the reason she ends up at the sea. Before she goes back to Grand isle, Edna is telling the doctor, “The years that are gone seem like dreams—” referencing her youth, her past “—to wake up and find… perhaps it is better to wake up...rather than remain a dupe to illusions in one’s life”(83). Now that she is back at the ocean, she feels the same emotions of regret as in the beginning of the novel. When she thinks of the ocean in comparison to her reality, it is an even more tempting display of the tear between her heart and mind. Even in the last chapter Edna describes the voice of the sea as “seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude” outrageously repetitive of the ocean previously, and now further “the foamy wavelets curled up… and coiled like serpents about her ankles” exuding the same mood as the beginning chapters, and finally, “the touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace” (86). All the details and features of the ocean have now not only become more tempting, but also more comforting to Edna in comparison to anything else earlier in the novel. 

Chopin uses these parallels to create an ending that rounds the story out and brings it to full circle. As Edna moves from setting to setting, she transforms into an isolated version of herself causing the novel to end with Edna alone, with only herself and the ocean. Chopin utilizes setting in the last chapter to activate a trigger to certain tones and impressions that leave a scene feeling some way compared to previous chapters. Just as Edna is coming face to face with the ending of the novel, she observes her surroundings and begins to feel nostalgic, “[hearing] her father’s voice and her sister Margaret's… The barking of an old dog that was chained to the sycamore tree” and so on, linking nostalgic tones of finality with the ocean (86).  The only question that remains: would the ending feel the same had it not been placed at the ocean? Chopin introduces these tones of the ocean in a select few scenes at the beginning of the novel and end of the novel to quietly bring the novel to its close. Chopin’s ending seems abrupt, but her subtle and short descriptions of the ocean and setting play a larger, more significant hidden role all throughout The Awakening by building it from the ground up; slowly, but surely.