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             While alone Edna "awakens" to the fact that she is an individual and has individual feelings. She also realizes she does not love her husband as she vowed to. At this point Edna knew what she wanted, and it was not marriage to Leonce, but divorce. She then moves out of her house without telling her husband. When she does tell Leonce, he tells everyone that he and Edna were merely remodeling the house and Edna needed a place to stay. He says this because he can not stop her, being across an ocean. Leonce's lies just go to show that man had more important things to do in life than please their wives. Wives were the bearer of their children and rarely the apple of their husband's eyes. Edna inevitably tells her women - friends what is really happening; that she is leaving her husband. All of these women tell her of what she is about to do to her life, reputation, and her children. Edna feels that she should come before her husband, but walks a thin line when asked if she puts her children before herself. .

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             When Robert returns to see Edna, she is full of excitement. When Robert learns that she lives alone and is away form Leonce, they share a special moment together. It was not accepted, during the nineteenth century, for women to divorce and remarry, Edna felt torn and weak. She does not know what to do with her life. In the end, She walks into the ocean and swims until she can swim no further. In this, it is inferred that Edna drowned.

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             In Edna's drowning there is a lot of symbolism. Her death shows, in an odd way, the birth of women's freedom of individuality.

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             In "Desiree's Baby", Chopin uses themes, such as, independence of women and marriage between people of two different races.

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             When Desiree's husband notices that his child has a black tint to him, he feels that she has hidden something from him. Desiree's feelings overcome her and she drowns herself and her child.