It was only after the first 40 pages that I finally arrived at the conclusion that this was a story about a woman finding her freedom. I feel like Mrs. Pontellier has always done what has been expected of her and never thought for herself. There always was her father there to make any decisions for her then she married and her husband made all the decisions.
She is a mother but she doesn’t seem much like a mommy, she seems to love her children but isn’t the always there mommy. Mrs. Pontellier’s character seems to me an example of how many women would have been like back then because girls were never allowed to think for themselves and pushed to marry at an early age before they really had been able to find out her they were.
Mrs. Pontellier’s affair with Alcee Arobin was her final step to her awakening of her self. She had just done what was expected of her that with Robert spending so much time with her and finally having to make some of her own decisions while out on the island for the summer without her husband she saw that there was more to her than just the dutiful wife and mother that she wanted so much more. Though she did ill fatedly fall in “love” with Robert, it only served to help her see herself.
I don’t think that she was knowingly planning to kill herself when she swam so far out, but underneath she was tired of this world and didn’t want to live in it without Robert.
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