It has been said that ignorance is bliss and if we don't know there is something more, we don't want it. It has also been said that the door to enlightenment and inner wisdom, once opened, can never be closed again. Many great philosophers and teachers have wrestled with the idea of ​​whether it is better to live a life of servitude and submission, or to pursue a life of personal happiness and emotional freedom. We are introduced to Edna Pontellier, a twenty-nine year old young woman who is married to an older, aristocratic man in his forties. They have two young children, who are cared for by the servants, and live a cultured and pampered life in late nineteenth-century New Orleans. The family spends the summer on Grand Isle with several other families. It seems that the husband, Leonce Pontellier, is a very autonomous man, closed in his own world, who reads the newspaper and seems annoyed by the hustle and bustle of life around him. Everything in his world, including his wife and children, are primitive and appropriate goods. His expectations of his wife are that she be available to him at all times, satisfy his desire for intellectual conversation, and if for any reason she is not, he rebels by leaving the house and going to his club. He returns to the mainland during the week, and Edna remains with the women, children, and eldest son of the island's landlady, Robert. Edna and Robert seem to have resonated with each other. They enjoy the same things and have developed a happy, platonic friendship. It is obvious to us that Edna feels a great void in her heart and soul. He has always thought that his life should mean something more, even if he doesn't know what that "more" is. Her... middle of paper ......to "think of the children, Edna" since she is sure that Edna wants to leave them. She goes home and finds a note from Robert that says "goodbye, because I love you". She seems resolute and broken. Returning to the island alone, she finds herself by the ocean. This ocean once gave her power and awakened her from the sleep she had been sleeping. She takes off all her clothes, something unheard of in her Victorian upbringing, and walks naked into the ocean. As he once explained to Adele Ratignolle, “I would give up the inessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself." She swims far, beyond exhaustion, is swept out to sea and dies. Ignorance is bliss, but the door once opened cannot be closed and knowledge once received cannot be forgotten. An awakening is eternal.