A Journey for the Lost Soul
The Awakening by Kate Chopin was written during the 1800’s and was published in the year of 1899. During this time, the novel struck controversial subjects using a strong feminist tone, which underlined Chopin’s views on sex, marriage, and women of that period. In this novel, it is evident that freedom and feminism are used as interrelations of each other to express her feelings towards each subject. Some characters in The Awakening served as an encouraging force pushing Edna to go forth with her self-discoveries. In her journey, Edna travels through many stages of freedom to find herself; from exploring her creativity, to being freely aware of her sexually desires in the novel. Chopin uses the self-defining journey of Edna Pontellier to reveal her views of freedom as it relates to women, through a feminist lens during the 1800’s. According to Annetta Kelley, author of The Sparkle of Diamonds: Kate Chopin's Usage of Subtext in Stories and Novels, "The novel's most stirring poetic semblance is its continuous subliminal whispering of "the seductive, murmuring sea" (Kelley 334). Chopin uses Edna Pontellier to represent independence and free will, and the sea to represent Edna. She uses this character as a tool to exemplify her own thoughts on subjects such as sex, marriage, and what it is to be a free woman. The freedom Edna Pontellier desires so much throughout the novel becomes apparent to her primarily when she is at the beach with her close friend, Madame Ratignolle, one summer’s day and she seems to lose herself in the ocean. As Mrs. Pontellier sits and explains to Madame Ratignolle what she is pondering about so immensely she states "Edna is responsive to this "ocean" of undifferentiated feeling and its compelling voice. (Treu 31). It is through this event of her losing herself in the ocean that she begins her expedition of finding herself. The compelling evidence that “Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman” (Chopin 19) only embarks WRONG WORD HERE on the perception that she is unlike many women of her time. For example, Mrs. Ratignolle is a foil because she is the very opposite of Mrs. Pontellier. She is a proud wife and mother who adores her children, and “produces a new baby at regular intervals” (Green). In contrast to Adele Ratignolle, who follows the conformed path of women during this time, Edna Pontellier only envies freedom from all conceptions of a women’s role in her time. One type of freedom Chopin reflects on is the freedom of self-expression through art. This is manifested when Edna’s artistic abilities begin to awaken and she begins to paint portraits of people and other objects such as a basket of fruit. Mrs. Ratignolle starts to see huge improvements in Mrs. Pontellier's art work when she says, “Surely, this Bavarian peasant is worthy of framing; and this basket of apples! never have I seen anything more lifelike. One might almost be tempted to reach out a hand and take one" (Chopin 143). With this being said, one may assume that Edna has been hard at work trying to perfect her art work because her first attempt was not pleasing to her. However, in actuality she is using her time to free herself from the realities of her life as it is, and devotes her attention to perfecting her art work because this is one of the few things in which she has control over.
Carole Stone states in “The Female Artist in Kate Chopin's The Awakening: Birth and Creativity”, “Rather than returning to the dependency of childhood, she goes forward to a new conception of self, a definition of herself as artist”. This statement is highlighting Chopin’s choice to use art as an indication of Edna’s re-birth through artistry. As Edna arose as an artist, her husband was much less supportive of her and it is illustrated through his statement of how she should not “let the family go to the devil” (Chopin 147) as she paints. His bold disapproval of her choice to paint generated by his belief that she should spend more time tending to the needs of her family, does not stifle her determination to create new visual renderings, but encourages her to move onward to eventually find and/or re-create herself.
Along with providing the source of Edna’s quest for self-re-creation through painting, Chopin explores deeper into the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Pontellier as she develops Edna’s character. It is clear that Edna does not want to be owned as anyones property. Therefore, she searches for freedom every way possible, even in her marriage. Edna begins to realize what it means to really own herself when she states to her friend, “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear […]” (Chopin 122). Cynthia Griffin Wolff identifies this as “Edna's most confident step toward freedom” in her critical essay, “Un-Utterable Longing: The Discourse of Feminine Sexuality in Kate Chopin's The Awakening”. In addition, to this statement, Edna is essentially explaining that she will never belong to any one else but herself. Correspondingly, Chopin chose to write how Mr. Pontellier was “looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property” (Chopin 4). Also, throughout the duration of the1800’s, women were often thought of as their husband’s property, a belief that Edna was not fond of and sought to escape from.
As a result of Edna’s eagerness to escape from the outcome of her life, she began to recognize the society of the Creoles like never before. According to Wolff, “[the] Creoles permit themselves an extraordinary freedom of sensual expression.” This type of freedom is one that she is not familiar with in her own society, but through this new experience of her being “thrown so intimately among them” came curiosity (Chopin 22). “She [becomes] fascinated, stimulated, eventually profoundly aroused” (Wolff). Moreover, her fascination develops quickly and prompts her to explore her sexuality beyond her marriage. As a consequence, she begins to let her heart indulge itself in the pleasures of love when she falls in love with Robert Lebrun. Through her promiscuous relationship she has with him, she begins to own and express her sexuality more discernibly. Edna’s infatuations grows to the point that she eventually wants to break away from her family, and husband. She even goes to the lengths of moving herself into another smaller home and tells her husband through a “charming letter” (Chopin 213). Being able to express her feelings outwardly is not such an unusual thing for Robert; however, when she tried to urge him to continue to explore their relationship farther, he could not let her risk losing everything just for him. Besides, actions like this would certainly be frowned upon in the 1800’s and that is something he was not willing to go forward with regardless of how much he loved her.
Not being able to be with the one that she loves moves her to silence, but also leads her to the realization that one day “he, too, and the thought of him would melt out of her existence, leaving her alone” (Chopin 300). This marks the beginning of when she realizes that nothing is forever and that one day he would have left her anyways and she would’ve moved on also. Nevertheless, Edna is driven to a destructive demise as she takes her last dip into the ocean and allows herself to grow tired in the ocean when she swims farther and farther into the midst of the sea. Again Chopin uses the sea as a tool to indicate Edna’s awakening and then her final sleep.
According to Manfred Malzahn in “The Strange Demise of Edna Pontellier,” “Edna's rebellion is a failure: she does not find a new place in society, having given up her old one for good.” In other words, Edna is perceived as an unsuccessful heroine because Chopin chooses to end the novel with the question of “Why did she do it?” lingering in the readers minds (Malzahn). Chopin’s daring approach to these subjects that promote freedom of self-expression, sexuality, and femininity made a strong and empowering movement in the literature world. With The publication of “The Awakening”, Chopin took a huge risk to let her voice be heard.
Chopin uses her novel “The Awakening” to lead her readers into seeing her views on freedom as it relates to women. By using the character of Edna Pontellier to bring about her point, she uses a powerful voice of a feminist which, in her time, was not welcomed. She uses Edna to show readers the underlying truth behind a women’s feelings and motives to take certain actions. Chopin highlights Edna’s choice to find her true self in different ways such as becoming an artist, expressing her sexual desires more freely, then ultimately freeing herself through the action of letting herself drown in the ocean. The ocean which was the root of her inspiration to find herself and is also what seduces her and evidently “[invites] her soul to wander in abysses of solitude” (Chopin 300) forever.

Works Cited
Kelley, Annetta. "The Sparkle of Diamonds: Kate Chopin's Usage of Subtext in Stories and Novels." Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association. 35.3 (1994): 331-344. Print.
Treu, Robert. "Surviving Edna: A Reading of the Ending of "The Awakening"." College Literature. 27.2 (2000): 21-36. Print.