Symbolism in The Awakening

Although all the images found in the novel gain more symbolic meaning as the story progresses, the seas is the primary symbol. The sea represents the difference between choice and blind obedience, self- determination and predestination and between life and death. " The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation " (13). Kenneth Elbe, an …

…few chapters of the novel. Patrick Evan mentions " The seas renews the feeling of freedom that she experiences learning to swim and on changing her life. This again begins her and Edna willingly releases to it " (Evans 1). " A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her -- the light which, showing the way, forbids it" (13). This light emerged through Edna's first bathing experiences in the sea with Robert, and continued to tease her regularly.