Talk about a dissatisfying ending...

I mentioned in my last post that I was curious to see if Edna's fate was comparable to that of Emma Bovary's from Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Well, they both ended with suicide. At least, that's how I read the last pages of The Awakening. I was really hoping that Edna would have some sort of revolution about the world outside of herself. Throughout the novel, I perceived her as extremely self-absorbed, flaky, and foolish. She got almost everything she desired from a stable husband to successful late night trysts with not one, but two lovers. Everyone around her loved her, and yet she was never satisfied. I understand this is because of her standing in society due to her gender, but she was making so much progress with her independence and freedom. I wanted her to continue making the life she wanted for herself, but instead she cut it short.