In addition to her newfound sexual freedom, the independence Edna shows from her husband and children, to be an individual, was seen as unusual. Unlike the way women are supposed to live only for their family, Edna wishes to live for herself. In the beginning of the book where all the Creoles had just started their vacation, Mr. Pontellier thinks,
In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman. The mother-women seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious brood. They were women who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels. (567)
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Being a woman who “idolized” and “worshiped” her husband and children would rid her of the “Otherness” that makes her more than just a tool for her husband and a life source for her children. He keeps referencing the women to angels, and as angels are the servants of God, women are the servants of their husbands. This follows the idea of women worshipping their husbands.
Edna does not play the role her husband expects, and sometimes goes against it. The same night of her awakening and the moment with Robert, Edna stays out on the hammock in front of the house. When Mr. Pontellier comes back and asks her to come inside she refuses. She thinks about that fact that,
Another time she would have gone in at his request. She would, through habit, have yielded to his desire; not with any sense of submission or obedience to his compelling wishes, but unthinkingly, as we walk, move, sit, stand, go through the daily treadmill of the life which has been portioned out to us.