FREE ESSAY ON SUICIDE IN THE AWAKENING

SUICIDE IN THE AWAKENING

Suicide in The Awakening
What is suicide? (Suicide is) the act of self-destruction by a person sound in mind and
capable of 
measuring his (or her) moral responsibility (Webster 1705). No one really knows why human
beings 
commit suicide. Indeed, the very person who takes his (or her) own life may be least
aware at the moment of 
decision of the essence of his (or her) reasons and emotions for doing so. At the outset,
it can be said that a 
dozen individuals can kill themselves and do (or commit) 12 psychologically different
deeds 
(Encyclopaedia Britannica, 385). Suicide is written about in a variety of novels, short
stories, and movies. 
Suicide moves like an undercurrent in the sea of themes of The Awakening. The possibility
of suicide and 
even the idea of death darkens the story, making Edna's emotional ups and downs dangerous
- her occasional 
misery leads her to subconsciously think of suicide. She holds the hopelessness at bay by
moving out and 
getting her own apartment, while trying to find a man who will accept her, but in the end
she succumbs. 
Edna's closest physical brush with death occurs one night at the beach, when the summer
residents 
decide to take a midnight swim. Despite having had a hard time learning to swim, she
realizes her ability and 
swims farther out than she ever had before. She overestimates her power and almost
doesn't make it back. 
She has a quick vision of death. The experience scares her, but she has tested her limits
and survived the sea 
for a while. Metaphorically, she has come close to death but resisted it. 
Falling asleep can be associated with the idea of death as well. Whenever Edna falls
asleep, it is 
noted in the story; across the bay at church and the first night once her husband has
left are examples. Each 
time there is a suggestion of drifting off to sleep and never waking up. When she is
across the bay, once she 
wakes up, she likens her nap to a hundred years' sleep. However, each time Edna does
awaken; it is only at 
the very end when she finally drifts away. She could have chosen sleeping pills as her
method of death, but 
she returns to the beach because of its memories of the summer, and the men in her life.
Her near-death 
experience in the summer left an impression on her that influences her choice of escape
from life. 
Throughout the story, Edna struggles to free herself. Leonce Pontellier tries to hold
Edna down, 
wanting her to be a mother and a housewife, when she knows she is not like that. Her
husband's oppression 
forces her to break free. This time, she escapes and begins life on her own, to succeed
at first. Then she meets 
Alece Arobin. He is a disreputable man-about-town who draws Edna out to the horse races.
For a moment, 
he brings her away from the precipice of suicide. His attentiveness attracts her, but in
the end she realizes that 
he means little to her. 
Eventually she sees Robert again. Having left her husband, she hopes to start a fresh new
life with 
Robert. Edna reminds him, that it was he who awoke her last summer out of a life-long
,stupid dream; 
however, Robert only leaves her a note that reads, I love you. Good-by - because I love
you. (Chopin, 
695). He does not understand what she needs either. She realizes, during the long
sleepless night that follows, 
that eventually she will forget her love for even Robert. 
That night she thinks about the forces that have tried to hold her down. She thinks of .
. . Leonce 
and of the children. (Chopin, 698); they sought to drag her into the soul's slavery for
the rest of her days. 
Finally, she realizes that her only escape is suicide. All her life, she has known people
who try to hold her 
down; she will forget them and meet others. This is her surrender to a tradition and a
society that is too 
powerful. She has flirted with suicide throughout the novel; in the end she . . . looked
into the distance . . . 
heard her father's voice and her sister Maragret's (Chopin, 698), and then she was gone.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Literature: Thinking, Reading, & Writing Critically. 2nd ed.
Ed. 
Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman, William Burto, and William E. Cain. New York: Longman,
1997. 
607-98.
Suicide. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Vol. 21. 1973 ed.
Webster, Noah. Sucide. Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English
Language: 
Unabridged. Ed. The World Publishling Company. New York: Rockville House Publishers,
Inc., 
1965.