Edna's Transcendence of Society - A Review of Kate Chopin's The Awakening

Edna's Transcendence of Society - A reviwe of Kate Chopin's The Awakening The end of The Awakening provokes many questions, namely; what really happens? And what does it mean? While I cannot tell you for sure what Kate Chopin intended, I can make assumptions based on the information in the text. Throughout the whole book, Edna again and again asserts her strength, as she refuses anything to be forced upon her, and pursues that which …

…home in the fall and live her cramped, restricted life as a mother and wife. So, she triumphantly spat in society's face, and drowned, rather than let society take her down with it. She could have chosen to struggle along, and lived a life of servitude to society's norms, but her personality would not allow it. Rather, she chose the way to freedom, to greater happiness; for only in death do we become truly free.