her new free soul. Edna refers to the social role of women in terms of clothing. She discards this clothing more and more as the story continues. As the clothing disappears, her rebellion against society increases. She defies conventional feminine behavior. During this time of self-realization, she becomes close to Mademoiselle Reisz, a woman who also refused to confine herself to the predictable role of Victorian women. She gradually becomes more distant from Adele. The story progresses, as do Edna's advances toward freedom. She decides to leave her home, which she no longer feels belongs to her. The materialistic house, not unlike the clothing she wears, has also become constricting. When shedding her house, she exerts her independence. She wants her own house to be responsible forthe upkeep, the payments. Being a part of Leonce's house increases her feelings of being a possession of someone else and she wants to rid herself of those feelings. Perhaps the most important clothing she discards is her house. She exerts the most freedom yet in her decision to find a place of her own. As a final profession of her freedom, Edna discards her last layer of clothing until she stands naked on the beach. She swims out into the ocean and drowns there. Her final act of independence required her to end her life. She shed the final constriction on her life when she stripped herself alone on the beach. She frees herself from social conventionalism and at last opens herself up to do something totally for her own reasons and rules. Throughout the novel, as Edna sheds herself of the clothing and possessions that surround her, she becomes more liberated, free, her own woman. The clothing represents the society that confines her and the independence that stripping the clothing gives her enlightens her soul. Kate Chopin uses clothing as a way of conveying the social injustice imposed upon women in the Victorian age in which they were trapped.Kate Chopin's...
