Adèle Ratignolle is placed among the mother-women who efface themselves as individuals. What does her function beside Edna amount to?

After learning to swim, Edna becomes reckless and wants to swim far out. What does the action reveal?

Edna refuses Léonce's Tuesday reception day after returning to New Orleans. What does that action reveal?

Robert leaves Grand Isle for Mexico after growing close to Edna. What does the departure reveal about him?

Mademoiselle Reisz hands Edna Robert's letter from Mexico, then plays Chopin's Impromptu and Isolde's love song while Edna reads it. What does the action reveal about Reisz?

Edna sells sketches, wins at the races, and uses her own money for the pigeon house. What does this reveal about her move?

Léonce sends a newspaper notice saying the Pontellier house is being remodeled. What does that action reveal about him?

At Adèle's childbirth, Edna watches "with an inward agony, with a flaming, outspoken revolt against the ways of Nature." What does her response reveal?

The narrator says Edna lives a dual life, an outward existence that conforms and an inward life that questions. What does the narration supply?

The narrator says Edna was fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way. What does that judgment clarify?

Chapter I follows Léonce as he watches Edna come up from the beach and judges her sunburn before the narration enters her mind. What does opening with his view establish?

The narrator calls Edna's first swim a feeling of exultation, as if power had been given her to control body and soul. What does this framing do?

The narrator reports Edna's moods as sudden alternations of hope, despair, and appetite. What does this perspective give the reader?

Edna says she would give her life for her children but not herself. Adèle answers cheerfully that she does not know what Edna means by "the essential." What does the exchange show?

In the final swim, Edna thinks Robert "would never understand," and that perhaps Doctor Mandelet would have, "but it was too late." What does this narration do near the end?

Chopin gives Edna a summer at Grand Isle and then a return to New Orleans obligations. What does that structure accomplish?

Why does the novel place Edna's first swim before Robert's departure for Mexico?

Grand Isle chapters repeatedly join leisure, music, talk, and sea bathing before the plot tightens. What is the structural effect?

Edna's dinner party comes just before her move to the pigeon house. What does that placement do?

Robert returns only after Edna's affair with Arobin has begun. What does that ordering emphasize?

The childbirth scene interrupts Edna and Robert's reunion. What does this structural interruption accomplish?

Why does Chopin return Edna to Grand Isle for the ending rather than keeping her in the pigeon house?

In 'idly, aimlessly, unthinking and unguided,' what does the string of modifiers establish in Edna's meadow memory?

The sea is described as 'seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring.' What does the mixed diction do?

Léonce looks at Edna 'as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property.' What is the effect of the comparison?

Mademoiselle Reisz says, 'The artist must possess the courageous soul... the brave soul.' What does the repetition of 'soul' stress?

Edna is 'flushed' and 'intoxicated with the sound of her own voice' after speaking frankly. What does the diction suggest?

At the end, a bird with a broken wing is 'reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down.' What does the syntax and diction create?

What does Grand Isle register about Edna's position in the novel?

What does the Pontellier house on Esplanade Street register about Edna?

Edna calls her small four-room house the pigeon house. What does the move register?

Mademoiselle Reisz's apartment is cramped, high, and removed from fashionable comfort. What does that place register?

What does the Chênière Caminada episode register in Edna's development?

When Edna returns to the empty Grand Isle beach at the end, what does the setting register?

Edna says, 'I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself.' Which meaning of the work does this judgment support?

Doctor Mandelet calls youth's illusions 'a provision of Nature; a decoy to secure mothers for the race.' What meaning does his diagnosis offer?

Mademoiselle Reisz says the bird that would soar above tradition must have strong wings. Which whole-work claim follows?

Adèle tells Edna, 'Think of the children, Edna. Oh think of the children!' What meaning does this plea sharpen?

Robert leaves the note, 'I love you. Good-by because I love you.' What meaning of the work does the note reinforce?

The mother-women 'esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals.' What whole-work meaning does this language frame?