Introduction
In the entire text, the author uses several foreshadowing to express the feminism concept. Chopin's work, The Awakening, despite being a controversial novel faced with criticism, allows the readers to predict the ultimate future through different choices the text protagonist Edna employs while trying to free herself from the male-dominated world. Therefore, the author attempts to use fictional characters such as Edna and other women to later predict their fate. The paper examines how the author uses foreshadowing to express feminism in Chopin's text "The Awakening (Treu, 2000)."
A good example of foreshadowing in the text happens when Mademoiselle Ratignolles gives Robert a warning on likely Edna being serious about their relationships. Through the author's text, it becomes clear that Edna is unique; she does not resemble her mates, Mademoiselle States, "She is not one of us; she is not like us. She might make the unfortunate blunder of taking you seriously."(Treu, 2000 pp24) As observed in the text, Edna does not advocate being treated as an object like other women. Later in the novel, Edna and Robert have a romantic relationship hence fulfilling Mademoiselle Ratignolles's prediction.
The author also uses another instance of foreshadowing to demonstrate how Edna describes how she can free herself from oppression, a common sight in her marriage. At one point, Edna can recognize that despite being in a romantic relationship, she does not have any interest any longer. In the text, "An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her conciseness, filled her whole being with a vague anguish. "Chopin tries to express how unfamiliar feeling suddenly stuck Edna, making her wish to redeem herself as observed in the final chapter. At a later stage, during her last swim, the author states, "A quick vision of death smote her soul, and for a second of time appalled and enfeebled her senses” (Treu, 2000 pp34) foreshadowing a possibility of drowning. Edna tries to consider suicide as the only option to redeem herself from the entrapping marriage nature.
Conclusion
Edna is against the natural and societal structures for motherhood, which make her known by her name as mother to Etienne Pontellier and Raoul and Leonce Pontellier's wife rather than a self-defined woman. Chopin's focus on two other women, Mademoiselle Reisz and Adele Ratignole, show Edna's life path options. These female characters are compared to Edna by men around her, and from the comparison, they get expectations about Edna. However, Edna finds the two role models not worthy, and she tries to imagine a free life and that the person she wanted to be was against nature and society. Edna frees herself through suicide after realizing that her fate brought her only despair since her fate was inventible.
