The Light, The Sea and The Woman

Chapter Six of The Awakening stands out from the first five. It was immediately apparent to me as I turned the page that this was a chapter to really pay attention to. Mainly because its about a page long in total, but also because the tone shifts. The narrator's voice stops simply relaying a story, here something different is added. This change in tone reflects the change in attitude that Mrs. Pontellier begins to undergo here. This change is described as a light that "was beginning to dawn dimly within her - the light which, showing the way, forbids it" (34). It shows how she is beginning to truly consider her place in the world. This light is her first realization that she does not have to spend her life devoted to a husband she doesn't love, nor as a simple wife who sneaks out of the house to cry at night. "In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being" and these types of thoughts will undoubtedly change the course of her life (24). Once she begins thinking in this manner I know she will not be able to go back to the way she thought before. Once you begin questioning things you can never again accept them.
"But the beginning of things, of a world especially, is necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing," as is the beginning of this book and the beginnings of the developments of its characters (35). Similarly, one can assume, is the beginning of Mrs. Pontellier's life. She is only 28 years old yet already married with two children. The narrator exclaims, "how few of us ever emerge from such beginning! How many souls perish in its tumult!" yet I think that Mrs. Pontellier will be one of the few that emerges from a beginning of chaos and disturbance. Just looking at her marriage we can see where this chaos and these disturbances are coming from.
The diction here in "emerge" and "tumult" reminds me of an ocean. The way someone can emerge from the water is different than simply leaving it. And tumult makes me think of waves turning over and over on each other with no order or sequence, just crashing and making a big mess. So it was interesting for me when I read on and saw that the narrator then speaks of the sea in such a positive way, because in the previous paragraph I had been imagining all of the horrible things about beginnings swimming in an ocean.
In fact, the sea in the last two paragraphs of chapter six sounds like a woman. The narrator describes the sea as "seductive", "whispering", "sensuous", and with a "soft, close embrace" (35). This description is feminine. The sea invites "the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation" (35). Taking these descriptions as a whole, I would say that the sea is feminine and dangerous. The sea is ideas, it is beautiful and welcoming and warm. It draws you into itself so you can look at yourself through "inward contemplation" (35).
If this book wasn't a feminist novel before, it definitely is now. The sea represents feminine ideas that can be dangerous, yet are inviting and beautiful all the same. And it is for this reason Edna Pontellier feels so "impelled" to spend time at the beach (34).