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Birds Symbolism In The Awakening

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Close Reading: The Awakening Chapter I-XIII In the story, the birds symbolize women and flight represents freedom. The birds are in a cage which inhibits their flight; this can be compared to women in captivity lacking freedom. What’s important to point out is that the bird, specifically the one mentioned in the passage, speaks a language that only other birds can understand. “He could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understand, unless it was the mockingbird hung on the other side of his door.” This represents women’s calls for freedom, which go ignored and are only considered by other women. The sea is most definitely a symbol of freedom. “The voice of the sea is seductive.” Women in the 19th century longed for freedom, …show more content…

Mademoiselle Reisz, who is outcasted from society and described as a “homely woman, with a small weazened face and body and eyes that glowed,” had “absolutely no taste in dress, and wore a batch of rusty black lace with a bunch of artificial violet pinned to the side of her hair.” Her choice of wearing black, which isn’t lavish and exquisite, carry her place in society. Edna wore a peignoir to bed, a woman’s light dressing gown. This clothing is light and thin and depicts an image of femininity. It is also important to note that feels comfortable and luxurious after removing her clothes. “Edna… loosened her clothes, removing the greater part of them… She took off her shoes and stockings… How luxurious it felt…” This can be a symbol of the removal societal images and the effects of it. In the motif of sleep/awakening, sleep could represent an escape from reality and awakening could be the return to reality, but it is more likely sleep is a lack of being aware of something, while awakening is the realization of it. Your senses give you information and knowledge, but you lose these senses when you are asleep. When you are awake, you regain them. Therefore, if awakening is an indirect symbol for realizing something, then Chopin’s use of sensory detail is his way to represent gaining knowledge, information, and

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