Edna The Sea Quotes

As the novel begins we are shown Edna’s life before her escape from society’s standards. At the beginning we are shown that Edna is valued by society because of her physical appearance and is portrayed as a housewife married to a wealthy husband. On only the seventh page of the novel we are shown the lack of individuality women had during this time period. We are first introduced to Edna and Edna’s husband, Leonce. Leonce creates the income for the family as well as viewing his wife more of a possession rather than a partner. Leonce notices Edna is sunburned when she has come back from swimming and views her as “a valuable piece of property which has suffered some damage” (7).

In the consuming darkness her body began to float upwards. Her mouth was open, letting in small discreet amounts of air, trying to buy as much time as she could before she ran out. Her fragile body was suspended in an awkward posture with her torso jutted forward and her limbs moving like a clockwork doll. Amongst the relentless whipping of the undulating waves she could hear her sister’s scream. She felt herself rise upwards as she continued to flail. She had to survive. She had to somehow reach the surface of the water and survive. She didn’t want to die. Not now. She was running out of air, no longer able to fight the urge to breathe. She looked up to see the sunlight, but she saw none. Then it dawned on her. She wouldn’t make it. She let

Edna's feelings of despondency fade as the sea's spell reaches out for her again. The narrator points out that "[the] voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in

Layton begins the first stanza with the setting of “afternoon foreclosing,” which conjures the idea of the end of the working day, both through the time of day and also through the diction of “foreclosing,” a term used in business and law (1). In this manner, the swimmer is introduced through his association with civilization, a point reinforced by his initial position on a “raft,” a symbol of civilization in itself (2). It is an “act of war” against his fellow man, therefore, when the swimmer dives from his raft, to break away from society to join nature (3). This act of rebellion is eroticized as the defloration of the sea, through the “opening the spray corollas,” and the

“I don't think I can swim it,” Nichelle said “ I'm not a good swimmer.” “Can you hold your breath for thirty seconds?” Jack asked. She looked at him “ I think so,” “Then you can do it. If you can swim, I'll carry you out.” Nichelle looked at him quizzically. “Why?” “We don't leave family behind” For a moment Nichelle was speechless. “Thank you”. (Evans 261)

“It was like walking through a graveyard” (Page 121).She was unaware they had been there. The bones had been left there by the Jackson’s from their whaling days. Whaling had brought them to Longboat Bay a century ago. Dora felt terrible having history reveal itself so suddenly. These people were now gone and only Abel and Dora were left. It was up to them as they had lived from the sea all the time and she saw what needed to be done. “Now it was time to help the sea live. She must protect the bay for all time” (Page

(213). The narrator once again speaks of the sea as if it were human. Stating the “waves paced to and fro” and “the great sea’s voice”, he gives the sea life and a voice. Having figures of speech such as these gives the story life and a vivid

Edna’s awakening occurs during her family’s vacation in Grand Isle. It is here that she learns to freely express herself and be unreserved in her behavior and speech. Through the Creole women, Edna becomes free from the chains that bind her to societal expectations. Adele

Leonce is charactereized as a Creole descendant, of the original colonist of Lousiniana which made their family distinguished. Edna tussles with the societal expectations, she “sees herself and the world around her with new eyes, and both are revealed to be grotesque” (Parvulescu 478). The notion of freeing from the ideas of social order is recognized to have been a strategy, Edna developed as a young girl. Wolff analyzes the different stages of Edna’s awakening of her marriage, her childhood, sexuality and psychological effects of relationships. According to Wolff, she was in fact living in a fantasy and unwilling to separate from her inner self and her dreams to face reality. “She is very little open to sustain emotional relationships because… her real self must remain hidden, revealed only to herself” (Wolff 232). Chopin returns the reader to look at Edna’s childhood through a series of flashbacks, learning about her family. The reader becomes aware of her mother’s death, that she is raised by a militiant father, and she is a “middle child of an ambigiusly religious family”(Wolff 450). Chopin presents her as coming “of sounded old Presbyterian Kentucky stock. The old gentleman, her father, I have heard, used to atone for his week-day sins with his Sunday devotions. I know for a fact, that his race horses literally ran away with the prettiest bit of

Women are seen as weak, dependent, and as housewives. Feeling suffocated and pressured to uphold the standard of society women live in fear. As they cannot suppress the way society has portrayed them. Men are seen as dominant or superior over women and are in control of them. They didn’t have a voice because men would overlook them. Women alone could not be single otherwise would be perceived as unusual. Many are afraid of the reality of not being withheld within a dominant figure. In the book The Awakening by Kate Chopin, There are multiple men that come into Edna’s life trying to either control or repress her existence. Leonce-her husband, Robert-her lover, and the Coronel-her father. In some sort of way they belittle her physically, emotionally or mentally. They all have left a scar on her in the way that she feels the need to start to rebel. In order for her to experience life and feel free as a woman in her state of mind she needs to feel different and unique and not rudimentary like every other woman has accepted to be in her time period. Edna seeks independence and will overcome any obstacle and she will commit an act that no other rebellious or non-rebellious woman would ever think to do and the meaning behind her act is very powerful to feminism.

The sea is a primary symbol of freedom throughout the text and therefore provides a vital portion of the story. Despite originally fearing the sea and the freedom it represented, she later found herself entering the depths of the water, discovering her own possibility. Feeling empowered and autonomous, Edna released from

Her love of the ocean brings to her to awakening, the happiness and wholeness that she always longed after.

Robert’s encounter, Edna is no longer repressed by her husband, asserts herself and does not regard herself as simply a wife and a mother. Ironically, at this time, Edna befriends pregnant Adèle Ratignolle, who spends all her time tending to her husband and children. Even though Adèle lives a hackneyed life, she helps

The ocean, and water in general, has the powerful ability give and provide life, but also take it away at any given moment. To finish up the narrative you see Edna entering the water naked. Throughout the novel and through historical evidence we’ve come to understand the way the fashion trends of the time period and how women’s clothes were particularly constricting. By removing her clothing, Edna is removing all of her past restraints and things that controlled her mobility. Entering the water naked can also be perceived as a rebirth of sorts if looked upon through a religious lens.

Although she was just attempting to swim alone, she saw this experience as a great failure because the fear or “encounter with death” prevented her from moving forward with the goal that she set for herself. The frustration that stemmed from this experience carried to that night where she asserted herself to her husband by defying his wishes. Her assertion was her first experience of freedom from oppression.