Use of clothing as a symbol in The AwakeningIn the novel The Awakening, Kate Chopin accompanies Edna Pontellier on a journey of self-discovery. In this way, he uses many symbols to show the relationship between Edna and the world. Clothing, or rather, the lack thereof, shows this relationship well. As Edna progresses through the novel, she discards more and more layers of the limiting “garments” that surround her body and soul. By taking off her clothes, one piece at a time, she disobeys the rules that society has imposed on her and, in doing so, exercises her independence. On this summer trip, Edna becomes a free woman. In the Victorian society that Edna lives in, proper dress for women requires that they wear very restrictive clothing. This clothing symbolizes the constraints on women's social behavior in this era. It limits Edna's body and impedes her freedom of movement. At the beginning of the novel, a fully dressed Edna is wearing all the appropriate clothes. However, when Edna and Adele walk together towards the beach, Edna wears far fewer clothes than her companion. Adele wears a veil, gloves and ruffles to protect her body. Edna wears a thinner, simpler dress and once at the beach she removes her collar and unbuttons the dress at the neck. She chooses not to cover up as hard as Adele. Adele portrays the image of a perfect Victorian woman through her way of dressing. Edna's decision to free herself more than Adele symbolizes her growing rejection of the rules of Victorian society. Edna becomes distraught when she finds out that her friend Robert is leaving. He goes home and takes off his clothes to dress more comfortably. She sheds more layers of conventio...... middle of paper......bsp;As the last profession of her freedom, Edna sheds her last layer of clothing until she finds herself naked on the beach. He swims into the ocean and drowns there. Her final act of independence required her to end her life. She freed herself from the final constraint of her life when she undressed alone on the beach. He frees himself from social conventionalism and ultimately opens up to doing something totally for his own reasons and rules. Over the course of the novel, as Edna sheds the clothes and possessions that surround her, she becomes more liberated, free, her own woman. . Clothing represents the society that confines her and the independence that stripping off her clothes gives her illuminates her soul. Kate Chopin uses clothing as a means to convey the social injustice imposed on women in the Victorian age in which they were trapped.