CHAPTER 39

Summary

Edna travels to Grand Isle where she meets with Victor and Mariequita, who is a pretty young Spanish girl who delights in flirting with the men who holiday there. The pair is surprised to see Edna and she explains to them that she has come to the island to get some rest. She arranges to lunch with them later and decides to go down to the beach for a swim, even though Victor tells her that the water is much too cold.

As she walks along the beach she spots a bird with a broken wing flying erratically. It is unable to keep airborne, and crashes into the sea. She finds her old bathing suit in the beach house and puts it on, deciding to go for a swim. She removes her costume and stands naked as the sea laps around her feet.  She feels reborn and swims out towards the horizon.  She thinks of L'once and of her children, of Robert and the inspirational Mlle. Reisz.  She ponders the fact that Robert never really understood her, just like L'once. As exhaustion takes over, her last thoughts are memories of her childhood and she succumbs to the ocean.

Interpretation

This scene was foreshadowed back in Chapter 6 where you will note the quotation, “The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude.”

Edna’s awakening has brought her solitude. No-one in her immediate circle understands her true feelings, and why she has broken away from the bonds that have tied her down.

The reader may well ask, “Why commit suicide?”   Like many good books, the reader is left to draw his own conclusions.  Was it an act of cowardice or bravery? What was the motive? Firstly, one has to decide whether Edna has achieved her goal of independence and freedom, and the answer is yes, this has been obtained through her death. She could not have remained alive and enjoyed the freedom that Mlle. Reisz enjoys because she would always have the bond with her children.  We note Ad'le’s last words to Edna, and she realizes that she would always be the object of gossip and disdain, and this would have harmed her children. This must therefore be considered as the main motive for her suicide.

What Edna did not anticipate when she embarked on this road to freedom was the solitude she would face at the end.  Robert, in some respects, was playing a part during the holiday vacation on Grand Isle where the social niceties were less formal. He is unable to break away from the tight New Orleans society and be with Edna.  He is in fact quite shocked at Edna’s show of independence, and we sense that he has some sympathy for L'once. Although it is not made plain in the book whether he knows of the affair between Edna and Arobin, he clearly has his suspicions.  This does not diminish his love for her, but it is not the same type of love that Edna has for him. He perhaps justifies his withdrawal from his liaison with Edna with the fact that she is untrustworthy because of her growing independence.  This too is another factor in Edna’s suicide. Robert is unable to go that last furlong and share a life of romance with her.

You will recall that we started the book with bird imagery.  It concludes with a similar reference to birds and we read, “A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water.”  You will recall Mlle. Reisz suggesting that the bird that tries to fly above the broad plain of convention must have strong wings.  We now see that Edna does not have strong enough wings to escape the cage that her soul is trapped within, and so she goes to her death, fittingly in the sea.