Edna had found her old bathing suit still hanging, faded, on her usual coat rack. He put it on, leaving his clothes in the bathroom. But when she was there on the seashore, absolutely alone, she took off her unpleasant and pungent clothes, and for the first time in her life she found herself naked in the open air, at the mercy of the sun, of the breeze that beat on her, and the waves that invited her. How strange and terrible it seemed to be naked under the sky! how delicious! He felt like a newborn creature, opening his eyes to a familiar world he had never known. The foamy waves curled up to her white feet and coiled like snakes around her ankles. She's gone. The water was cold but she continued walking. The water was deep, but she lifted her white body and reached out with a long, sweeping stroke. The touch of the sea is sensual, it envelops the body in its soft and tight embrace. The Awakening, Chapter XXXIX, Page 160. The novel “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a woman, who is kept in chains by the social conventions common at the end of the 19th century, where the story takes place. One day Edna awakens from the role assigned to her by society and begins to listen to her inner desires and feelings that guide her towards herself. From now on Edna becomes an independent and free young woman, living her life for herself, not for her husband and not for her children as one would expect a woman out of this time. He abandons his old life to start a new one. It seems that Edna closes every door behind her, so that there is no way back to her past life even if she wanted to take it. The passage above shows Edna at the end of her journey of self-discovery. The exhibition where the story began: on the beach of Grand Isle. After the reader has accompanied Edna through the entire novel, the story has now come full circle. The protagonist has reached a point where there is no way out. But even social conventions are too strong to be broken by the progressive woman that Edna Pontellier represents. Although it cannot be proven verbatim, the reader understands that Edna ultimately commits suicide and drowns herself at sea..