The suicide of Edna Pontellier in the novel The Awakening, written be Kate Chopin, is not an awakening but a tragic event. If one takes into consideration the emotions and pain that Edna felt they may begin to understand what it was that drew her to her own demise in the sea. It may even become clear that Edna should not be held responsible for her actions. She was in a depressed emotional state and deep inside she was calling for help. The warning signs were there. Some may view this ending as her way of beating the system or winning but for a person to kill themselves under no circumstances should be viewed in that manner.
             At the very beginning of the novel, there is constant reference to a caged bird. This can be considered to be a reference to the "caged" life that Edna leads as a wife and mother. Edna certainly felt caged, "an indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness..."(1652) She felt like her children "had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul's slavery..."(1732)
             Edna was overcome with feelings of manic depression. Her moods changed like the tides of the sea. "There were days when she was very happy without knowing why... There were days when she was unhappy, she did not know why, when it did not seem worth while to be glad or sorry, to be alive or dead..."(1690) People around Edna began to notice her changing moods. Like Alcee Arobin who "was ready at all times to submit to her moods, which were as often kind as they were cold." (1705)
             It seems as though she had emotional problems since she was a child. "Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself."(1657) Her mother died when she was very young. She didn't have very many friends as a child.(1660) Since she was young she had been infatuated with men that she couldn't have. ...