him. (44) After the Pontellier's return to the city, Edna is less concerned with doing what her husband and society has deemed is right and proper for her. She completely ignores her "reception day" and instead goes out and does what she wants to do. She acts nonchalant when her husband finds out and goes into a mild fury about it. He winds up leaving to go to the club to have dinner, while Edna finishes her dinner alone. She later goes up to her room. There she experiences another fit of depression: She carried in her hands a thin handkerchief, which she tore into ribbons, rolled into a ball, and flung from her. Once she stooped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying there, she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it. But her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the glittering circlet. (50-51) She wants to do damage to something; it is her way of releasing the aggression and anger that her husband has caused her: " In a sweeping passion she seized a glass vase from the table and flung it upon the tiles of the hearth. She wanted to destroy something. The clash and the clatter were what she wanted to hear." (51)Edna does what she wants in the days that follow, though some days she is more happy than on others: "There were days when she was unhappy, she did not know why, - when it did not seem worth while to be glad or sorry, to be alive or dead; when life appeared to her like a grotesque pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling blindly toward inevitable annihilation." (56) Edna doesn't understand what is affecting her so much, but she finds comfort in solitude: "When Edna was last alone, she breathed a big, genuine sigh or relief. A feeling that was unfamiliar but very delicious came over her." (69) She likes to be alone when she sketches or paints; it is soothing to her. She seeks solitude when she's experiencing her complicating emotions; "Or else she s...
