The reality of Edna Pontellier's marriage is evident from the start of the book when returning from a swim in the ocean, she is critically sized up by her husband.
"You are burnt beyond recognition," he added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage. She held up her hands, strong, shapely hands, and surveyed them critically, drawing up her fawn sleeves above the wrists. Looking at them reminded her of her rings, which she had given to her husband before leaving for the beach. She silently reached out to him, and he, understanding, took the rings from his vest pocket and dropped them into her open palm."
Edna does not yet see the strength of her hands before she sees the absence of her wedding rings, but things are about to change for her. The late 19th century Creole society in New Orleans of which she is a part dismisses her summer attentions from Robert as all part of a game of flirtation and therefore harmless, yet they share a deep understanding of one another, right before Mr. Pontellier, and that understanding grows into a love that prompts a metamorphosis in Edna. It begins slowly and builds off a self-knowledge that Edna has always possessed.
"The sentiment which she entertained for Robert in no way resembled that which she felt for her husband, or had ever felt, or ever expected to feel. She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves. They had never taken the form of struggles. They belonged to her and were her own, and she entertained a conviction that she had a right to them and that they concerned no one but herself."
Rather than mere "mother" or "wife" or some other patriarchal defined role, Edna is consciously tied to her own individualism despite the impossibility of that in her time and place. In a heated argument with a friend, she tries to explain that the connection with and possession of self must come before all else.
"I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me."
And from this point on the self-revelation picks up pace as she literally and figuratively attempts to crush the restrictions her wedding ring represents under her heel. She begins to paint, distances herself from her family and social obligations. On one level, she appears terribly depressed about her circumstances and the fact that Robert is removed from her, yet on another level, she seems to be coming alive.
"He observed his hostess attentively from under his shaggy brows, and noted a subtle change which had transformed her from the listless woman he had known into a being who, for the moment, seemed palpitant with the forces of life. Her speech was warm and energetic. There was no repression in her glance or gesture. She reminded him of some beautiful, sleek animal waking up in the sun."
Later, with her husband on business in New York and her children in the country with their grandmother, Edna hosts a grand dinner party as a farewell to the constraints of her marital home before she moves to a smaller house around the corner of her own choosing. This description of her suggests the full power of her newly acquired sense of self.
"The golden shimmer of Edna's satin gown spread in rich folds on either side of her. There was a soft fall of lace encircling her shoulders. It was the color of her skin, without the glow, the myriad living tints that one may sometimes discover in vibrant flesh. There was something in her attitude, in her whole appearance when she leaned her head against the high-backed chair and spread her arms, which suggested the regal woman, the one who rules, who looks on, who stands alone."
I love that. Love this book that seems to grow better with each reading for me. You either already know or can imagine where Edna is headed, but if you have not already, you should read this. And imagine the bravery it took for Chopin to publish and stand behind such a work in her own time, a work that effectively ended her writing career because of the controversy it elicited.