hat summer. Not having to play all the roles her husband had provided her. Edna also bonded with two other women, Adele Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz. She studied each of the woman’s life roles. Adele was clearly a “mother-woman” to her children and her husband. To Edna, Adele looks like a “faultless Madonna.” An Edna can see that Adele has chosen the roles that society has offered her. Mademoiselle Reisz, the musician, is almost the opposite of Adele. “She was a disagreeable little woman, no longer young, who had quarreled with almost every one, owing to a temper which was self-assertive and a disposition to trample upon the rights of others” (McQuade). No one loves Mademoiselle Reisz; no one even calls her by her first name. Edna is possibly her closest friend. Edna uses these two women as examples of her choices much later in the novel. Upon moving back to New Orleans, the Pontellier’s winter home, Edna takes on a new personality. She seems like a visitor in her husband’s home. Edna is again only her husband’s wife. She must resume her duties: accepting streams of callers every Tuesday, making flashy public appearances on the arm of her husband at social events, and entertaining dinner guests on a regular basis. (Skaggs, 104)Robert has gone away to Mexico, and Edna takes up a purely sexual romance with Alcee Arobin. She also begins painting, and roaming the streets of New Orleans. Is she missing Robert, or is she missing herself? When Robert returns he avoids her, for he is trying to forget her. By this time, Edna has already moved out of her husband’s mansion and living independently in the so called “pigeon house.” Edna meets him one day in her attempts to visit Mademoiselle Reisz. She was shocked that he had not sought her out as she had imagined he would. Upon their reunion, Robert confesses his desire for Mr.Pontillier to set her fre...
