The Awakening by Kate Chopin was a novel that caused uproar when it was released in 1899. Over a hundred years later, students that read the novel still form a small uproar of their own. They are shocked that the ending is not the "happily ever after" they had envisioned for Edna, the protagonist, but rather a purposeful suicide. Finally, they are discontent with the ending because they feel the author has illogically led Edna into the sea in a moment of weakness. I happen to disagree. Though I could never feel that the end of the novel is settling, I feel that Chopin has lead us through a journey that reveals Edna's fate all along and that Edna was quite aware of where she was going and how the novel (and her life) would end.
             The conclusion of the novel is the most revealing text that indicates Edna cannot continue to live the way that she has previously. However, even from the beginning of the novel, it is made quite clear that Edna has a connection with the sea and that the water would be a pivotal part in her "awakening." If the novel did not end with Edna and the sea, many sections of the book would seem flawed and out of place. Chopin creates the necessary background for all the characters quickly in the first section of the novel and by the fifth chapter, Edna begins to reveal her relationship with the sea. The first mention of the water comes from Robert urging her to go for her daily swim and Edna looks at the water "whose sonorous murmur reached her like a loving but imperative treaty" (Chopin 16). On the next page the sea is further described by saying: "The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace" (Chopin 17). Edna is already describing the sea the way one would describe a lover. She does not use such words to characterize her husband, whom she does not even truly love, she does not use ...