Edna

When Edna tells Madame Ratignolle that she would give up her life, but not own self for her children, what I understand by this is that Edna does not identify herself as a mother. I take this statement to be a way for Edna to claim her identity as she herself sees it and not as how society expects her to be. Although many believe that women easily associate and define themselves as mothers, Edna challenges this by saying that her life as a whole is not restricted by the mother title. In other words, an confirmed when Edna walks into the ocean at the end of the novel, she refuses to be simply a mother, she ‘awakens’ and realizes that there is more to life than just being a mother once one has children. One still remains an individual with needs, wants, and desires; and once Edna finds them, she refuses to let them go—she refuses to loose her newfound self.