"Good-by--Because I Love You."

The last page of The Awakening very important to the novel because it ties symbols seen previously in the novel with Edna's decision of being finally free.

As Edna enters the cold water naked, she feels like some "new-born creature", therefore, images of her childhood keep coming back to her head as she swims further and further into the ocean. As a child, Edna felt completely free from any type of restrictions and limits, which is exactly what she wanted now. By reviving these scenes, Edna is able to overcome the fear of being unable to return to shore, in other words, of dying.

But as Mrs.Pontellier pictures herself as a child to move on, she is also thinking of her own children. She remembers the conversation she had with Madame Ratignolle in which she says she's willing to die for them, but not to sacrifice herself. In Edna's situation, she is dying in order to save them from the destiny of a bad reputation due to her mother. She is willing to die in order to assure their happiness, bbut she is not willing to sacrife herself. Sacrificing herself would mean coming back to Mr.Pontellier and reuniting the family. By doing so, Edna would be loosing a part of herself, and falling back to the dream of which she has finally woken up from.

As physical exhaustion reaches her, she remembers Robert and the note he left her the previous night. As Edna stayed the entire night pondering of their encounter she realized that just as she got over Mr.Pontellier and Arobin, the love she feels for Robert might as well extinguish. Edna says "He did not know; he did not understand", refering to the fact that Robert never understood that her goal as a woken woman was to be entirely free from other's control. As Robert tried to step back from Mrs.Pontellier because she was Leoncé's wife, she understood that Robert saw her as a possesion too- someone else's posession.

Finally, as the terror is coming back, Edna returns to her memories as a young girl to calm her fears and feel that indeed, she is being born again in death.