The point of Edna Pontellier's affairs is that she is on a road that leads to independence; not just sexual, but emotional and intellectual as well. It is ironic that the man that she truly loves, Robert Lebrun, is not a man with whom she shares her bed. It can be said, however, that she did have an affair with Robert, albeit not a physical one. She did fall in love with Robert, and in him found the things that she longed for in a man. However, instead of sleeping with Robert, she gives in to her desires and has a sexual affair with Alcee Arobin, a seductive womanizer who succeeds in pleasing Edna sexually. Edna, however, does not again relinquish her autonomy to Alcee as she did to her husband Leonce.
             The sexual element of the story is important for a few reasons. First and most obvious is the fact that by the standards of most people at the turn of the century, literature such as this was quite shocking. The sexual element, especially coming from the pen of a woman, served notice to the men of the era that their women longed for, even needed something more in life than simply being the property of and taking care of their husbands and children.
             The final scene does not seem to be of a sexual nature, although Edna's newfound freedoms, which included her sexuality, are largely the reasons for her suicide. For the first time Edna stands in the open without clothing, symbolizing the freedom she feels to break from the norms that society had placed upon her, and that she rebelled against toward the end of the story. Edna simply refuses to be tied down to the life that was expected of her, and she therefore gives up her life in order to maintain her independence.
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