Theme: Identity

Identity is an important theme expressed throughout the novel. It plays a part from the first few chapters of the novel to the very last chapter. Edna had to decide who she wanted to be, and if that's what she wanted to pursue. You can see in the first few chapters, when she shows up to the house with Robert, that she is already starting to focus on her own happiness. She was not happy with her marriage, which was common in these times, but if she didn’t want to be a wife to this sexist man, why did she have to be? Edna knew that she had the power to make her own choices, even if they came with extreme consequences. “Even as a child she has lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she has apprehended instinctively the dual life­­ that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions,” (18). She wanted to be her own person, with control over her own life, so that’s what she did. Mr. Pontellier talks about her like she is an alien because of the way she identifies herself. He says, “She is not one of us; she is not like us. She might make the Unfortunate blunder of taking you seriously,” (26). He even agrees that she is not defined by society, but by herself and that she is unpredictable.