Edna skips her reception day, then stamps on her wedding ring before the maid finds it under a chair and hands it back. What does the sequence reveal?

When Leonce complains about her neglecting household duties, Edna keeps painting and refuses to be managed by his schedule. What character movement does this show?

Edna refuses to attend her sister's wedding in Kentucky, even though her father expects family obedience. What does that refusal chiefly mark?

Edna moves from the Esplanade Street house to the pigeon house while Leonce is away. What does the move refuse?

At her dinner party, Edna commands Victor to stop singing the song associated with Robert. What does this refusal expose?

The Colonel says a husband should use authority and put his foot down. What pressure does his scene add around Edna?

Doctor Mandelet tells Leonce to let Edna alone and let her moods pass. What pressure does his advice represent?

Alcee Arobin repeatedly enters Edna's new social life after the races and the dinner party. How does he function as a pressure on her?

Mademoiselle Reisz reads Robert's letters and watches Edna's response. What role does Reisz play in that pressure?

Adele's childbirth scene ends with her warning, "Think of the children." What pressure does Adele supply at the novel's end?

Reisz says, "The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings." What test does the metaphor put to Edna?

The narrator says, "Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual." What does the line put at issue?

After Arobin kisses Edna, the narrator calls desire "a flaming torch." What does that figure emphasize?

Walking home, Edna recalls Adele's 'Think of the children' and resolves to think of them, but 'not to-night. To-morrow would be time to think of everything.' What does her postponement show?

In the water, "the foamy wavelets curled up to her white feet, and coiled like serpents about her ankles." What work does the simile do?

Robert confesses his love, but the summons to Adele's childbirth interrupts the scene. What does that ordering accomplish?

Adele's warning comes immediately before Edna returns home and finds Robert gone. Why is that sequence important?

Doctor Mandelet offers Edna help after Adele's delivery, but she goes home first. What does this placement do structurally?

Robert's departure and note precede Edna's return to Grand Isle. What does placing the note there prevent?

The final chapter returns Edna from New Orleans to Grand Isle, the site of her earlier awakening. What does that return accomplish?

At the end, Edna hears remembered voices and ordinary sounds rather than a direct statement of purpose. What does the narration withhold?

The narration says Edna feels like "some new-born creature" as she stands before the sea. What does the image leave unresolved?

The broken-wing bird appears above the water near the close. What does the narration avoid saying outright?

Edna thinks Leonce and the children "need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul." What remains unstated after that thought?

The novel closes with the hum of bees and the odor of flowers, not with witnesses discovering Edna. What effect does that omission create?