Mrs. Pontellier & Motherhood

 As we had already guessed within the first few chapters of the novel, Edna Pontellier isn't close with her children and does not act like how a real mother should towards them. Foreshadowing is seen when they are first introduced in the first chapter to us as just the 'Pontellier children' instead of giving the audience their actual names. As we read on, it becomes more and more clear of how negligent Edna is towards her children. "She would sometimes gather them passionately to her heart; she would sometimes forget them" (Chopin 25). Even though it is said that she cares about them occasionally, Mrs. Pontellier often forgets about her own children. A few lines after, we learn that when they were sent away to their grandmother's house a year earlier, it is described as " their absence was a sort of relief... It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which fate has not fitted her" (Chopin 25). She even admits that she feels relieved when they are not around and feels as if she was never ready to have children in the first place. She will never feel like she is fitted to be a mother to them and is too self-absorbed to take on the responsibility that comes with it.