According to him, she has no independence, no personal self-fulfillment, and must only live for him. .
Leonce believes that Edna is not performing her womanly duties and is an irresponsible mother. He believes women must tend to their children, household duties, and their husbands alone. Therefore, when Edna begins to show signs of independence, he erupts with frustration and anger. The behavior Edna's husband displays is typical male behavior that feminist criticise and want to change.
Edna finds the truth about the society she lives in through her experiences. Although she complies with all the norms and pre-conceived ideas of what she is supposed to do, after meeting Robert she feels like she needs to discover who she is inside, and to be free from her family. Up to that point she was, in her eyes and in the eyes of the society, a wife and a mother, devoted to those around her and without seeing herself as a woman. After she falls in love with another man, she discovers new things about her and tries to explore her newfound identity. The idea of the wife and mother who discovers her womanhood is a feminist idea that Kate Chopin shares with most feminist writers.
Edna's understanding of an inner, autonomous spirit, defies the belief of that time that women were property of their husbands, serving only specific roles as mothers and wives. Adele Ratignolle embodies everything about femininity and womanhood of the last century. She is devoted to her husband, who adores her, gives birth every two years, and adorns herself with lavish clothing and jewelry. She depends on her family, not herself, and is notable for her beauty. She is everything Edna does not want to be. By creating Adele, Chopin creates a contrasting image for Edna. Adele is what Victorian society expects from a woman and what feminist critics so much detest. .
To be womanly by traditional standards apparently requires the kind of self-sacrifice at which Adele excels, and the narrator dislikes this quality much more than Edna.
