Avian Symbolism In The Awakening Essay Research free essay sample

Avian Symbolism In The Awakening Essay, Research Paper Avian Symbolism in The Awakening Kate Chopin systematically uses avian symbolism in the novel The Awakening to stand for and Enlighten Edna Pontellier. She begins the novel with the image of a caged bird and throughout the narrative other birds and avian images appear stand foring freedom, failure, and picks that Edna, the narrative? s chief character, must do. Throughout The Awakening Chopin uses flight and descriptions of birds to show the psychological province of head of her chief character, Edna Pontellier. As the narrative begins we are instantly introduces to the importance of avian symbolism. The first spoken sentences of the novel, are oddly plenty, squawked by a parrot instead than a chief character or some other human. # 8220 ; Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That? s all right! # 8221 ; ( Chopin 3 ) are the words yelled by this crazed, caged bird. # 8220 ; Go off! Travel off! For heaven? s interest! # 8221 ; is the interlingual rendition of this message into English. We will write a custom essay sample on Avian Symbolism In The Awakening Essay Research or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This message represents the forbidden and tabu ideas rushing through the head of Edna Pontellier during her post-awakening period. Edna longs to go forth her subservient function as the loving, submissive married woman and female parent that society forces on her. She longs for something more exciting, something of her ain choosing and free will. These lines are echoed once more instantly anterior to her waking up. While the twins are one time once more playing the same vocals on the piano the parrot scream, ? Allez vous-en! Sapristi! . ? This is the concluding warning that the parrot relays to Edna. Edna should hold listened to the parrot? s message and escaped from her disappointing life instantly. Yet, she chose non to mind his warning and she was destined to stop her life in order to be free. In add-on to the parrot? s message, the image of this hostile, shrilling bird is a symbol in and of itself. For like the parrot, Edna is besides trapped, non behind the bars of a coop, but by the criterions of society and the function that has been appointed to her as a adult female. In the same manner that the parrot can non liberate himself of his coop, Edna can non of all time to the full break free of the restrictions that society has placed on her as a adult female, married woman, and mother. Although she makes a witting attempt to divide herself from the people who are keeping her dorsum and interruption free of the boundaries that society has set upon her, she can neer to the full win in fulfilling her hungriness to populate her ain life. The following illustration of the avian imagination in The Awakening comes in the signifier of a handsome, immature smoothie named Alcee Arobin. Although on first glimpse he does non look to be of or related to birds, upon closer scrutiny we see that his last name syllabicated easy is marked # 8220 ; a # 8211 ; robin # 8221 ; . This bird, ? the forerunner of spring? , is able to wing freely and live in close propinquity to worlds. Arobin matches this description, for he, as his name implies, flies freely through society and as his repute suggests becomes near with many adult females. True, with # 8221 ; # 8230 ; artless candor he spoke of what a wicked, undisciplined male child he had been. # 8221 ; ( 78 ) and to Edna he, # 8220 ; talked in a manner that astonished her at first and brought ruby to her face # 8221 ; ( 80 ) . Furthermore, he has no declinations or concerns when he pursues a relationship with Edna, a married adult female. Alcee Arobin is a adult male who soars t hrough life with no attentions at all. He is known for H is chases with adult females and is really straightforward when seeking to acquire what he wants. Clearly he disregards the limitations and? regulations? that society has set up. Edna sees these qualities as admirable and longs to hold them so that she excessively will be able to wing freely through life without limitations and a coop to lock her up interior. The advice, given to Edna by the cryptic Mademoiselle Reisz besides falls into the form of avian imagination to stand for a deeper significance for the novel? s chief character, Edna Pontellier. Mademoiselle Reisz says that, # 8220 ; The bird that would surge above the degree of apparent tradition and bias must hold strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the doormats bruised, exhausted, fliting back to Earth # 8221 ; ( 85 ) . Though Edna does neer truly understands the message behind Mademoiselle Reisz? s warning, the reader realizes that if Edna is determined to interrupt through the stereotype of the submissive, small adult female of her clip, and to interrupt free as herself in society, she must hold strength in order to win. When Edna attempts to derive her freedom she moves into a small house around the corner from her larger more epicurean house in which she is trapped by her household and the criterions that have been set upon her by the society around her. Not coincidently she names the house the? pigeon house. ? Edna felt that, ? The pigeon house pleased her. It at one time assumed the intimate character of a place, while she herself invested it with a appeal, which it reflected like a warm freshness. There was with her a feeling of holding descended in the societal graduated table, with a corresponding sense of holding risen in the religious. Every measure which she took toward alleviating herself from the duties added to her strength and enlargement as an person. She began to look with her ain eyes ; to see and to grok the deeper undertones of life. No thirster was she content to? feed upon sentiment? when her ain psyche had invited her. ? This house was the big measure that she took toward self-fulfillment and felicity. It seemed to be the lone thing that was every genuinely her ain. Once once more the image of birds is used to liberate her and to stand for her transition into a new life. At the tragic decision the presence of birds are one time once more really evident. Prior to Edna? s self-destruction, she notices that, # 8220 ; a bird with a broken wing was crushing the air above, fliting, circling disabled down, down to the H2O # 8221 ; ( 116 ) . The hurt bird being injured and weak dips into the H2O typifying Edna? s failure to get away the boundaries and restrictions in her function as a adult female. Edna shortly follows the bird into the deepnesss of the ocean, stoping her life and liberating herself of the lunacy that was environing her. Therefore, with consistent mentions to birds and flight, Kate Chopin? s trapped character meets her fate While she is unable to mind the advice of the parrot, non ready to follow the loveless, amoral way of Arobin and the work forces that she is certain will follow him, and merely half-understanding the message of Mademoiselle Reisz, in her decease she eventually becomes a free adult female. As she waded into the cold ocean H2O at the novel? s terminal, Edna Pontellier was # 8220 ; winging free # 8221 ; to her decease. 3cf Chopin, Kate. ? The Awakening. ? The Awakening and Other Stories. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1995. 3? 117.