The sea reflects her feelings, becoming almost one with her consciousness. It strives to suit her emotions and it often lulls and calms her. Mrs. Pontellier realizes that she is disillusioned by her family life while sitting with Madame Ratignolle, stating that she is "fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way" (Chopin 19) and that their "absence was a sort of relief" (Chopin 19). While this realization occurs, she looks towards the sea which makes her "intoxicated with the sound of her own voice" (Chopin 19). Mrs. Pontellier is intrigued by hearing her own voice because she, as both a female, a mother and a wife, has had to listen and be a subordinate person instead of speaking her own ideas. As if it recognized Edna's need to be freed from the grasps of her children and of her husband, the ocean puts a spell on her. It influences her to strive for freedom from the oppression of family life. Once the ocean makes her discover the importance of her own voice, she stops submitting herself to her husband's will and lets her own will be just as important as his: "She perceived that her will had blazed up, stubborn, and resistant" (Chopin 31). "This new found sense of self helps wake her out of a dream - a grotesque, impossible dream better known as motherhood" (Edwards 283). .
.
Edna's new identity leads to indulgence; she takes risks by abandoning the traditional role that a woman plays by being an obedient and moral housewife. She rejects the church, a typical family icon, because it reminds her of her father's prayers in which he "read in a spirit of gloom" (Chopin 17). The church is a negative image because the patriarchal structure is dominant over the matriarchal structure. Edna indicates her disapproval of the church by anxiously walking out of it because it has a "stifling atmosphere" (Chopin 34) and makes her have "a feeling of oppression" (Chopin 34). The church, just like her husband and society, imposes strict and biased rules upon women.
