Note that when Léonce becomes tired of listening to the parrot's loudly repeated phrases and the mockingbird's persistent whistling, he has "the privilege of quitting [the birds'] society when they ceased to be entertaining." Meanwhile, the birds can only protest as best they can when the environment in which their cages hang becomes unacceptable to them, such as when the parrot seems to be objecting to listening yet again to the Farival twins play their oft-repeated duets on piano. Like Edna, the parrot is censured for his honesty by those who have a sentimental need to maintain certain appearances of civility or enthusiasm, despite their true feelings about the situation. Tired of effacing her own innate self to carry out the mother-woman role, Edna breaks with all social expectation when she exercises her "privilege of quitting" Léonce's company by moving into the so-called pigeon house. Note that while she has made progress in that she has escaped Léonce's gilded cage, still she is defined as a domesticated bird.
A critical use of the bird imagery is Mademoiselle Reisz's symbolic assessment of Edna's wings, an incident Edna describes to Arobin: Mademoiselle Reisz "felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong," and warned that those individuals who would "soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings" lest they find themselves unable to complete their flight and fall to their death. Such an image evokes the legend of Icarus, who achieved flight with a set of manufactured wings but fell to his death in the sea when out of pride he flew too high, and the sun melted the wax that held the feathers to his artificial wings. Interestingly, when The Awakening was first published, some reviewers not only condemned the book, but also insisted that Edna's death was well deserved because she was selfish enough to value her journey to self-realization over her household and family.
