The Awakening A Success Or A Failure

Edna did not fail, nor did she blossom into some strong symbol of female independence and grace. Neither argument seem true to The Awakening. In it, Edna embarked on a journey that would ultimately transform her entire identity and her satisfaction with life as it was given to her. Edna was certainly before her time, this did not make her mature by any means nor the more insightful as she grew. Edna kept her childlike fire, acting impulsively, selfishly, and all around contradictory. Edna was discovering herself all by herself and chose her end even if it meant she failed in her quest.

The life down in Louisiana was difficult to say the least for Edna. Rather shy and quiet she preferred to keep her life private and away from others. The
Unable to adapt Edna was left at a cross roads; she could be miserable and accepted or different and possibly happy. Finally cracking under the pressure of who she was becoming and why she "Stamped her heel upon it[her engagement ring], striving to crush it" (1294). By destroying her ring she freed herself. No longer would she be ruled, no invisible force could stop her and casting aside for good her bonds to the burdens of life "She began to do as she liked and feel as she liked" (1297). Edna begins to see what these societal constraints mean and she hates it. Hates that she still cares what others think of her, hates that she relies on their judgment of herself and even her art. "I'm not going to be forced into doing things," Edna decides, for no one else but herself that she will not become the conventional woman; she will not settle on a life filled with conformity to please others; Edna would rather die
Feeling that she is her only friend and the only one that understands; in the end when she drifts too far away from everyone she drowns "The stretch of water behind her assumed the aspect of a barrier which her unaided strength would have never been able to overcome" (1275). This is not only the physical boundary the water provides, but also the social and mental wall she has created among her friends and in her marriage. At this point Edna has done irreparable damage to her social status, to the idea others had of her, and to any approval she might have wanted. The water is scary again; It turns black once more and she begins to see how alone she truly is "I thought I should have perished out there alone" (1275). Edna is finally free and independent. Her children bring her little joy, marriage cast aside, social ties rendered useless by her actions; Edna has placed the stone in her pocket and begins to walk out into the deep. This was not her time, Louisiana in the 1800’s was never Edna’s home. Her obsession with becoming everything she imagined was just too unobtainable in the