Literary Analysis #3

1. Edna is in the cottages of Madame Lebrun  in Grand Isle with her two sons and her husband. Edna is friends with Adele who helps her open her eyes to some emotions and desires that she didn't even know she had. Then Edna meets Madame Lebrun's eldest son, Robert Lebrun; who has the reputation of choosing one women who most of the times is married and attends her. Robert and Edna start off as friends but then begin to have feelings for eachother and in the end Robert leaves to keep himself from making a mistake with a married women. Then Edna returns to New Orleans but different and her husband is worried so asks for guidance from their family physician, Doctor Mandelet. He suspects that Edna might have had an affair but doesn't say anything and tells Leonce (Edna's husband) to let this phase run its course. Edna then moves by herself and then cheats on her husband  with a man named Alcee Arobin but since she is still in love with Robert she only uses Alcee for her sexual needs. Edna meets a women named Mademoiselle Reisz her encourages her art and is a  pianist. Mademoiselle Reisz is the only one to know of Robert and encourages Edna to act upon her feelings. Robert goes to New Orleans and tells her what he feels but tells her that they cant be together. she tries to convince him, but he doesn't want to enter an adulterous affair. Adele has a difficult childbirth and Edna goes and speaks to her and Adele reminds her of her children and so does Doctor Mamdelet. So she starts thinking that she was acting selfishly. Robert leaves her unable to do such a relationship, then Edna moves to Grand Isle. She ends up killing herself in the sea.
2.  I felt the theme of this book is to always follow your heart rather than what society wants you to do, but from the beginning.
3. The author's tone is considerate and understanding of a women who has been blind to what she wanted for herself and what other people wanted for her. Even though the author knows that this will cause some suffering, so maybe even a little apologetic.

• “The years that are gone seem like dreams—if one might go on sleeping and dreaming—but to wake up and find—oh! well! Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life.”  
• “The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.”  
• “She was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world.” 

4. Foreshadowing: Robert was known to choose one women, often a married one and attend her. 

Personification: “The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude.” 

Metaphor : “Goodbye -- Because I love you.” IF you truly love something let it free if it comes back its your if it doesn't it never was.

Simile: “She was flushed and felt intoxicated with the sound of her own voice and the unaccustomed taste of candor. It muddled her like wine, or like a first breath of freedom.” 

 Imagery : “She turned her face seaward to gather in an impression of space and solitude, which the vast expanse of water, meeting and melting with the moonlit sky, conveyed to her excited fancy. As she swam she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself.” 

Diction:  “A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her,—the light which, showing the way, forbids it.” - The way she said " forbids" in the end in really bringing out how women are oppressed.

Gradation: “He could see plainly that she was not herself. That is, he could not see that she was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world.” 

Hyperbole: “I love you, only you; no one but you. It was you who awoke me last summer out of a life-long, stupid dream.” 

Symbolism: That could be the sea in which Edna learned hoe to swim with Robert it could be refer back to the first time where she felt free.

Incongruous: “Who can tell what metals the gods use in forging the subtle bond which we call sympathy, which we might as well call love.”