Edna Pontillier

At the beginning of the novel Edna seemed very normal and simple.  She fell in love with a Creole man and then married.  The couple had children and lived a typical Creole life.  Once getting into the novel a little more we found out that she does not take care of her children the way Leonce wants her to.  He believes that the children should be her number one priority.  While I do somewhat agree with that, I also think that Edna was not acting out by letting her children have some freedom.  But as the novel progressed, we continued to learn more in debt about Edna's character.  She started to do some things that were against the Creole society.  For example, in chapter 17 Edna did not follow her usual routine of greeting and entertaining the guests that would show up at her house on Tuesday afternoons.  Leonce reacted to this by saying, "Why, my dear, I should think you'd understand by this time that people don't do such things; we've got to observe les convenances if we ever expect to get on and keep up with the procession.  If you felt that you had to leave home this afternoon, you should have left some suitable explanation for your absence."  I personally do not find what she did that big of a deal.  I'm sure it seemed so bad to Leonce because it was against what Creoles would do and because Edna was doing something different.  I was actually happy that Edna wasn't taking orders from Leonce and she stopped trying to constantly please him.  Now, after having read over half of the novel, at this point Edna has changed completely from the way she was at the beginning.  She is now lonely, troubled, and at times it seems like she is crazy.  This is when I start disliking Edna's character.  It seems as if she has gone over the edge and she doesn't care about anything anymore.  It is not just the Creole society she is opposing, it is more like human society.  Edna now is just a little too psychotic for me to like her.

If I was in Edna's situation I think I would act the way she started behaving more towards the beginning or middle of the novel.  If I did not believe in the Creole society, which I don't, then I would do minor things that followed my own personal views.  Edna knew that she was marrying a Creole man and that was her decision.  Therefore, if I was in the same position I wouldn't have done anything too drastic.  I wouldn't dare act the way Edna does more towards the end.  In chapter 29 it says, "Without even waiting for an answer from her husband regarding his opinion or wishes in the matter, Edna hastened her preparations for quitting her home on Esplanade Street and moving into the little house around the block."  It starts to seem like Edna is not just protesting the society, but she is also being disrespectful and selfish.  In my opinion, Edna does not need to act this way just to get her point across.  However, after saying all of that, you can look at this from both ways.  I'm sure if I was treated the way Edna had been for all those years I would be sick and tired of it.  At some point, I would probably reach a breaking point as well.  It just seems somewhat hard to support and agree with Edna's decisions unless you were truly actually in her same position.