Edna Pontellier's Sexual Awakening

In addition to her sexual awakening, Edna also was determined to remove herself from her traditional occupation as a mother and transfer into something more individualistic such as painting. Although being a painter was not like being a retail clerk or office typist as many other modern women in Edna’s era became, this hobby demonstrates Edna’s dissimilarities from other upper-class mothers during her time. For example, in comparison to Madame Ratignolle who preferred to spend her summers sewing winter clothing for her children, Edna saw no “use of anticipating and making winter night garments” (Chopin). It is this desire to fulfill her own needs that allows Mrs. Pontellier to drop her former motherhood duties and pick up her paint brushes