tayed indoors and nursed a mood with which she was becoming too familiar for her own comfort and peace of mind. It was not despair; but it seemed to her as life were passing by, leaving its promise broken and unfulfilled." (70) In the solitude she starts to distance herself from those around her that love and care for her. Her moving from her husband's house is the first step in this; it distances her from her husband's control and everything that is his: "Instinct had prompted her to put away her husband's bounty in casting off her allegiance." (76) At the dinner party she gives before she moves, she is surrounded by those that care for her, but even then she wants to be alone: "But as she sat there amid her guests, she felt the old ennui overtaking her; the hopelessness which so often assailed her, which came upon her like an obsession, like something extraneous, independent of violation." (84)Edna begins to admit to Doctor Mandelet that there are some things that bother her, but she isn't ready to fully discuss them; she doesn't believe that he can understand her she merely explains: "Some way I don't feel moved to speak of things that trouble me. There are periods of despondency and suffering which take possession of me. But I don't want anything but my own way."(105) Edna is not willing to talk about what grips her, and after Robert leaves her again, she becomes completely depressed and dead to the world. From this point on she doesn't know what she is doing. Despondent, Edna returns to Grand Isle, the place of her awakening and happiness with Robert. Yet she seems not to know what her purpose is there: "Edna walked on down to the beach rather mechanically, not noticing anything special except that the sun was hot. She was not dwelling upon any particular train of thought." (108) Edna's body has taken over because her mind has gone: "Despondency had come upon her in the wakeful night, and it had never lifted. There was no one t...
