Kate Chopin

As she swam she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself.

She had resolved never again to belong to another than herself.

There was no despondency when she fell asleep that night; nor was there hope when she awoke in the morning.

Edna wondered if they had all gone mad, to be talking and clamoring at that rate. She herself could think of nothing to say about Mexico or the Mexicans.

She could only realize that she herself — her present self — was in some way different from the other self. That she was seeing with different eyes.

She was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world.

Sometimes I feel this summer as if I were walking through the green meadow again; idly, aimlessly, unthinking, and unguided.

The present alone was significant; was hers, to torture her as it was doing then with the biting conviction that she had lost that which she had held, that she had been denied that which her impassioned, newly awakened being demanded.

"You have been a very foolish boy, wasting your time dreaming of impossible things when you speak of Mr. Pontellier setting me free! I am no longer one of Mr. Pontelliere's possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose. If he were to say, 'here Robert, take her and be happy; she is yours,' I should laugh at you both"

Looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of property which has suffered some damage.