rs all the proper clothing. However, when Edna and Adele walk together to the beach, Edna wears considerably less clothing than that of her companion. Adele wears a veil, gloves, and ruffles to protect her body. Edna wears a thinner, simple dress and removes her collar and unbuttons her dress at the throat once at the beach. She chooses not to cover herself as harshly as Adele. Adele portrays the picture of a perfect Victorian woman through her manner of dress. Edna's decision to free herself more than Adele symbolizes her growing rejection of Victorian society rules. Edna becomes distraught when she discovers her friend, Robert, is leaving. She goes home and sheds her clothes for a more comfortable wrap. She casts off more layers of conventional Victorian clothing, thus discarding more societal rules. She does not like the idea of joining Mrs. Lebrun in her home because she must put on the restricting clothing once again. This means to her that she would have to give up some of her new found freedom. Edna's marriage and the symbol of that marriage symboize another aspect of clothing that she feels she must dispose of. Edna becomes more and more distant from Leonce, her husband; the man she was expected to, but could not, love. She becomes angry with Leonce when she realizes he refers to her as his possession and fully believes it. He complains to Edna about the way she carries herself and their household and begs of her to act more the way a conventional woman would. Edna is not prepared for conventionality, and the final straw in dealing with her constricting husband finally snaps after his complaints. She throws her wedding ring to the ground as a symbol of discarding the man she did not love. In her eyes, her relationship with Leonce only stood to hold her back from the freedom she searched for, and shedding the ring liberated her from his conformist rules. As the novel continues, Edna discards more layers of her old self, revealing...
