symbolaw Symbols and Symbolism Essay - Symbolism in the Title of Chopins Awakening :: Chopin Awakening Essays

Symbolism in the Title of Chopins Awakening     Kate Chopin entitled her second and last-place allegory, The Awakening. In doing so she did not just give an abstract denote to her work, but she chose a title with meaning and symbolism. By titling her work The Awakening, Chopin is indicating her feelings and opinions of the Creole society, Edna, her life, and her ultimate decision. The title also symbolizes how Edna defies the constraints of her ordained life as a Creole women and becomes and individual. Furthermore the title the Chopins novel symbolizes the theme of her novel.     In Edna Pontelliers pick out culture, the Creole culture, women have a certain expectations in society. A Creole women must be beautiful, motherly, a good wife to their husbands. They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteem it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow travel as ministering angels (pg. 8). This is wha t was expected of women, it was their place in Creole society. However Edna awoke from this complaisant institution in which women have a predestined life, which they must run the Creole way. Edna became sure of the fact that this culture is what kept her from doing what she really cute to do, to love, live, be independent and to express herself as an individual. Throughout the work Edna is continuously awakening from her naps, constantly awakening to a world she cannot escape. Each dayspring she awoke with hope... (pg. 104) and When Edna awoke with the conviction that she had slept long and soundly. (pg. 37), these are a few examples of Edna awakening from slumber. It is scarcely through these frequent naps that Edna defies the constraints of the world she lives in. Her awakening from her naps is symbolic of her awakening from the Creole culture and her husband.   Not only does the title symbolize Ednas awakening from her complaisant constraints, but the t itle also conveys Chopins opinion of society and Edna. By entitling her novel The Awakening, she is stating that there is an injustice to women in society that people need to conscious of, which people need to awaken to and that Edna has indeed awakened to it.