Freedom and Danger

The sea represents both freedom and danger throughout the novel — the medium through which Edna discovers her physical power, and the element that will ultimately claim her. In the final scene, Edna walks into the Gulf and swims outward until she cannot return.

Whether her death is suicide or transcendence remains debated. Edna has discovered a self — creative, sensual, independent — that her world has no place for. The water that first liberated her becomes the only space where her freedom can exist without compromise.