The novel is something of a landmark in nineteenth-century American literature in that it reaches out beyond woman's obtaining equality in law and love to the existentialist demand for dictating one's own destiny, and even beyond that to the horror of freedom, the immutable affliction for both the men and women who venture that far. (Seyersted 152)

Throughout Chopin's novel, Edna is a highly dynamic character. Once only a possession of her husband, semi-conscious and unaware of her feelings and ambitions, Edna eventually becomes a respectable woman who acknowledges her own desires, breaking free from the roles to which society has confined her. The three men in Edna's life represent Edna's change from the stereotypical woman of the time, to a "bird that would...