The Voice of the Sea

Someone please enlighten me as to who I am.

Because I have no clue. And neither do you.

And now we proceed to reveal to you just how exactly it is your body came to have your soul plowed from its fleshed encasing so it could serve as a warm-blooded haven to the residents of Mars.

Suspense.

No. Seriously.

Fine.

I have no clue who I am and neither do you because all we know about ourselves is what we are not and what we don’t want. We have absolutely no idea what we do want to happen to us or how to describe ourselves in detail.

If you’re normal, that is.

We have theories for our existence and we have goals. But rarely do we have some sort of epiphany as to our purpose and our presence in this slowly turning earth while it tilts on its axis.

Very rarely do we have epiphanies like that of Edna Pontellier. Moments of wisdom where we catch a glimpse of what our purpose is exactly:

“ In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her. This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight--- perhaps more wisdom that the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman.”

So here we have Edna finally identifying herself as an individual in this men-clad world. God-knows what Kate Chopin means by her ‘position’ or her ‘relations’ seeing as she doesn’t explore that topic with much detail, but here we see a reference to the title. “The Awakening.” It makes you think of enlightenment and a burst of thought and newfound realization, which in turn leads us to Edna’s emerging knowledge of just who she wants to be and what her purpose is.

The part that aggravates me is how the narrator describes “more wisdom that the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman.” Notice how it doesn’t say the general ‘man’ which accounts for all people. It specifically says that just the thought of giving any amount of wisdom to a women is an act that would make the Holy Ghost cringe. Here again we have the sexist approach to the world. Here again we have a society where the thought of females acquiring any wisdom is a virtually intangible concept that surpasses our comprehension.

Well.

Chopin moves on to describe the beginning of anything—most specifically the world--- as being “vague, chaotic, tangled, and exceedingly disturbing.” And goes on to state how few of us ever emerge from such a beginning and how “many souls perish in its tumult.”

But if Chopin were just talking about the world, the few of us who emerge would be the few who manage to surpass its hardship and not die in its uproar, if not eventually. Basically, the very few people who make something of themselves in this life despite the obstacles. But the beginning can also be the start of many different things. It can even be the commencement of a type of Awakening. It can be the difficulty that borders the beginning of a life when having come across enlightenment and a new perspective on which road to take. The beginning of life, the beginning of dealing with a decision, the beginning of Edna having come across a new meaning of life and making something out of it.

And then comes the sea.

Again comes the voice of the sea with its never-resting whispers, its clamoring, murmuring, “inviting the soul to wander in an abyss of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of contemplation.”

From the moment I read of the sea having a voice I immediately noted the detail. Because the sea is something that is so bold and intrepid in its vastness and beauty, and it is as exquisite when calm and glittering as when tumultuous and crashing. The sea is a beautiful creature that is moving in both of the senses. Not just the water molecules that drift from one shore to the other, but moving in the sense that its presence can generate peace, or feed anger. It is a very sentient entity that moves us.

It is a voice so powerful that lets the soul relax in peace and solitude and observe the world around them. It is a sort of escape. It is the means by which Edna drifts away for a while, both physically and mentally.

Which is why she can’t turn down Robert’s offer to go to the beach.

“The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.”

The ocean connects the world. It connects cultures and ergo binds knowledge. In a way, the sea is a metaphor for Edna’s contemplation and learning as well as her becoming a little more intelligent in her daily life.

I can’t help but take a look at the quote on the back cover of the book, “She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before,” and ponder this theory. The ocean is the means of enlightenment and of uncovering one’s true self and soul. If Mrs. Pontellier says she wants to swim out far where no woman has ever been, she is using the ocean as a way to say that she wants to reach enlightenment, to reach all of herself and all that she can be, to find a purpose for a role that has been oppressed by a male-ruled society. And, in this way, swim far out to “The Awakening.”