Journal 26: The awakening's end

Quote:
“‘Good-by—because, I love you.’ He did not know; he did not understand… She looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again. Edna heard her father’s voice and her sister Margaret’s” (Chopin 625).

Summary:
This is the end of The Awakening, when Edna goes back to Grand Isle and ends up swimming in the ocean at night. Finally, she never stops swimming and finally she loses or her strength and dies.

Response:

This ending is really interesting, because first she starts talking about Robert and how he said good-by to her, because he loved her. She is blaming him for not understanding her, for not being capable of understanding that Edna was free already, that she could do what she wanted, that they could be happy together. But of course, she was wrong; she didn’t understand that her relationship with Robert wasn’t going to end in a good way. It was an illusion that she could finally break the chains that tied her to the conventional world and be free. Deep down in her soul she knew this, which is why she wanted to keep on swimming, maybe at first she wanted to prove she could keep on swimming and not surrender to death, but that wasn’t possible. Perhaps her wings, or arms weren’t strong enough, and she wasn’t strong enough to go back to the harsh reality.

Also, it is interesting that her final sight is not those of freedom, but of her family. She is regressing in time, to her childhood, where once she had doubted her faith. This is probably the final meaning of her death, she finally discovered that she was once again the child who could think freely and take care of herself. She was back to the time where she didn’t know the harsh reality, where promises are broken and she can’t be happy. All this ends up killing her, but before dying, it’s like she doesn’t fear death anymore, because the terror that appeared before her the first time she swam far away, finally sank away, and she finally awoke by dying.