Who will Edna offer herself in sacrifice for in The Awakening?

This is a fascinating question regarding this excellent
novel concerning the breaking away from contemporary gender roles of a woman who
experiences an "awakening" about herself. Certainly Edna says to her friend, Adele, that
she would never sacrifice herself for her children. At the end of the novel, when she
does sacrifice herself by committing suicide, it is important to ask who she does it
for.

Although much debate exists over the meaning of her
suicide, I personally think it can be interpreted as a feat showing the courage and
determination of Edna. It demonstrates her understanding that a woman who is in search
of independence as she is really has no way of achieving what she wants in a society
that is so eager to reinforce and maintain gender roles.

As
Edna goes down to the beach she is thinking hard about her situation, about the bleak
future that awaits her:

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The children appeared before her like antagonists
who had overcome her; who had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul's slavery
for the rest of her days. But she knew a way to elude
them.

Edna determines to hold
on to her new-found independence, whatever the cost, and as she goes into the sea, that
has always been a symbol of awakening and re-birth for her throughout the novel, she
does not look back but goes on, experiencing memories of her childhood and recent past,
wrapped in the sea's "soft, close embrace."

Therefore, to
me, Edna's suicide was an act of sacrifice for herself. It was either this or to return
to the socially prescribed roles of mother and wife that she rejected so strongly. Her
suicide was an act of bravery and independence entirely in keeping with her own series
of "awakenings" experienced through the novel. She is finally free to be the person she
wants to be.