I disagree with Margit Stange’s argument that Edna’s suicide as the end of The Awakening is an act of self-ownership. I believe it is because Edna sees no way out of her unhappy situation. Self-ownership, “in the second half of the nineteenth century, signified a wife's right to refuse marital sex—a right feminists were demanding as the key to female autonomy” (Stange). Margit Stange sees this belief, also known as voluntary motherhood, as the reasoning behind Edna’s suicide because she wants to escape motherhood. The act of killing herself frees Edna from all maternal responsibilities, so therefore she is simply participating in the trend of owning herself. I, on the other hand, believe that, although this is an interesting take on the situation,