A Loving Downfall

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For a long time Edna has been asleep and stuck in a loveless marriage in the Creole society. Her realization that love is more than what she has in her relationship with Leonce is the reason for her awakening and also the reason for her eventual suicide.
Robert becomes a symbol for Edna that represents true love and being with him made her realize that she is not in love with Leonce. Edna starts to have a connection with Robert that shows her how bad her life is currently with Leonce. While Leonce is at work, Edna and Robert have a lot of time to build a relationship. For example, on page 35 they jokingly talk about finding pirates’ gold and how they would share and spend it together. Along with casual flirting, Robert is there for Edna during monumental steps in her life, for example, when she decides to go out and swim in the ocean. Edna had taken lessons but was always too afraid to swim with the others. Robert has many opportunities to become a big part of Edna’s life and have a bigger influence than her husband ever did. One page 81, Edna is asked “are you in love with Robert?” and she responds that she is. Her answer shows that Robert is becoming that symbol of love apart from her husband. After a lot of flirting with Robert, on page 50 Edna deliberately disobeys the rules of Leonce and the Creole society when she decides to go out instead of waiting for her callers. At this point Edna has gotten a lot closer to Robert and she is showing signs that she no longer likes being in the Creole society. Her relationship with Robert is helping her realize that she doesn’t have to be stuck in the Creole lifestyle, she can attempt to have a better life.
Love is the reason Edna wakes up in the novel. Robert is her symbol for love and ...

... middle of paper ...

... idea of love helped Edna wake up and it was the driving force behind her new life, but as time goes on she realizes this one thing that drives her new existence becomes unattainable, giving her no real reason to live. Edna thinks Robert is the love of her life, the only person that is different and can give her true happiness. However, Robert later wants Edna to marry him. She realizes that the one person that she thought was different was the same as any other man in the Creole culture. The idea of love that Edna had built up was a lie and her whole future was now built off of this one lie. Right before she drowns, Edna quotes Robert and says that “he did not understand. He would never understand” (116). The idea of love awoke her from her past life, but the realization that she could never have this love that she had imagined gave her nothing else to live for.

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