en Robert enters she pushes the cat away to make room for him. Once Robert is settled comfortably the cat climbs onto his lap, and he "stroked her silky fur" (Chopin 166). Through the use of the cat as a symbol Chopin is demonstrating Edna's willingness to follow her own sexual instincts rather than the dictates of convention.There are three major events which symbolize the struggle between conventionality and instinct in Edna Pontellier. All three occur on the same night, and follow directly on the heels of one another. The first occurs when Mademoiselle Reisz plays for the assembled group one Saturday night. Usually, music conjured up images for Edna. One, of a naked man standing alone on the seashore, is described by Chopin to show us that even in her own imagination Edna's world is governed by patriarchal images.But tonight is different. No images come to her, "But the very passions themselves were aroused within her soul, swaying it, lashing it, as the waves daily beat upon her splendid body. She trembled, she was choking, and the tears blinded her" (Chopin 72). Edna is no longer bound solely by the patriarchal conventions. She has abandoned her conventionality.Immediately after this Robert proposes a swim, "at that mystic hour and under that mystic moon" (Ibid). On this night, for the first time, Edna is able to swim on her own, like a "child, who of a sudden realizes its powers, and walks for the first time alone" (Chopin 73). Chopin says "She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before" (Ibid). And so she does, swimming so far out that for a moment she is afraid that she has gone too far. But she conquers her fears and swims. Her instincts have rushed in to fill the void left by the absence of convention. Physically and symbolically, she has left the world of patriarchy behind her.The third event happens on Edna's return from her first swim. Leonce orders her to bed, and she refuses him. She has now completely abandon...
