Metamorphosis of Edna in "The Awakening"

In "The Awakening", the protagonist Edna Pontellier undergoes a metamorphosis. She lives in conservative society, a society that restricts sexuality, especially for women of the time. Edna is bound by the confines of a loveless marriage, unfulfilled, unhappy, and closed in like a caged bird. During her summer at Grand Isle she is confronted with herself in her truest nature, and finds herself swept away by passion and love for someone she cannot have, Robert …

…and for the first time in her life she stood naked in the open air, at the mercy of the sun, the breeze that beat upon her, and the waves that invited her." (p. 108) Edna has discovered something inside her and she cannot return to the person she was. Her soul is free, but the burden of that freedom is too much, it overwhelms and overtakes her so that she cannot exist in this world.