The Awakening · Chapter
XXXIX explained
Edna returns alone to Grand Isle, where she encounters Victor and Mariequita.
What happens
Edna returns alone to Grand Isle, where she encounters Victor and Mariequita. After a brief conversation, she goes to the beach, removes her bathing suit, and swims out into the sea, reflecting on her life, her children, and her love for Robert. She drowns, embracing the sea as a final escape.
Themes in this chapter
Freedom vs. Confinement
Edna's final act of swimming into the sea represents her ultimate rejection of societal and familial constraints, choosing death over a life of confinement.
Nature and the Sea
The sea is depicted as seductive, sensuous, and inviting, serving as both a literal and symbolic escape for Edna.
Female Awakening and Self-Discovery
Edna's journey culminates in a stark realization of her own desires and limitations, leading to her final, solitary act of self-determination.
Characters to notice
- Edna Pontellier
Returns to Grand Isle alone, swims out into the sea and drowns, reflecting on her life and her children.
- Victor Lebrun
Repairing the porch at Grand Isle, talks with Mariequita, and is astonished by Edna's unexpected arrival.
- Mariequita
Sits with Victor, listens to his stories, and helps Edna by fetching towels.
- Robert Lebrun
Edna thinks of him and recalls his farewell; she realizes he will eventually fade from her memory.
- Léonce Pontellier
Edna reflects that he and the children are part of her life but cannot possess her.
- Mademoiselle Reisz
Edna imagines her mocking reaction to her actions, recalling her words about the courageous soul of an artist.
Key passages
“She understood now clearly what she had meant long ago when she said to Adèle Ratignolle that she would give up the unessential, but she would never sacrifice herself for her children.”
Edna now fully grasps her earlier statement to Adèle: she would abandon non-essential things, but she would not sacrifice her own self for her children.
Edna reaffirms her refusal to be a self-sacrificing mother, a key aspect of her awakening.
“The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude.”
The sea's constant, alluring call beckons the soul to explore depths of loneliness.
The sea is personified as a seductive force, drawing Edna toward solitude and oblivion.
“She felt like some newborn creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known.”
Edna experiences a sense of rebirth, seeing the world anew as if for the first time.
Her nakedness in the sea symbolizes a fresh start and a return to a primal state.
“Goodbye—because I love you.”
Robert's farewell is remembered as an expression of love that Edna believes he will never fully comprehend.
Edna reflects on Robert's parting words, feeling misunderstood and alone.