The Awakening (blog #3)

The pigeon-house symbolizes Edna’s breakthrough as an individual. She purchases the house using her own money: money from her mother’s estate, money from winning races, and money from selling her sketches. By buying the house with her own finances, Edna no longer relies on Mr. Pontellier as money is the only thing he ever provides her. He does not supply her with feelings of love nor with feelings of happiness. The pigeon-house gives Edna a “feeling of freedom and independence,” “a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual” (134, 151).

Outsiders attempt to dissuade Edna from living in her pigeon-house and experiencing independence. For instance, Madame Ratignolle relates Edna to “a child,” a person who acts “without a certain amount of reflection” (153). She believes Edna is being irresponsible for choosing to live by herself. Arobin, despite supporting her breakthrough, terms Edna’s departure from Mr. Pontellier’s house as a “coup d’état” (141). The word tends to seem negative as it correlates to treason. Mr. Pontellier even makes an effort to mask Edna’s newfound freedom from the public by notifying one of the daily papers that “their handsome residence on Esplanade Street… would not be ready for occupancy until their return [from their summer sojourn abroad]” (151). He creates a new situation to hide the truth.

Ironically, a pigeon house is used to constrain pigeons. While Edna’s house is only called the “pigeon-house” for being “so small” and looking "like a pigeon house,” perhaps the pigeon-house will foreshadow the ending of the book (140). The pigeon-house could symbolize her freedom from Mr. Pontellier but not her freedom in society.