Edna Pontellier is the protagonist of the novel. She is a 28-year-old mother of two children and the wife of Léonce Pontellier. During their family vacations at Grand Isle, Edna realizes how unhappy she is in her passionless yet comfortable marriage, and how unaware she has been of her own emotions and desires. Although Edna has always been a romantic and in her youth was enamored with many men—a cavalry officer, a man visiting a neighboring plantation, a tragedian—she perceives her marriage as the end of passion and the beginning of responsibility. She thought that her youthful fantasies of passionate love would disappear once she became a wife and a mother, but they remained and came to the surface in the form of her emotional and physical longing for Robert Lebrun.

Through a series of experiences, Edna becomes an independent woman, and channels her energy into her art. Yet Edna’s independence sometimes equals selfishness, because in her quest for it she often fails to consider the feelings of those around her. Throughout the novel, Edna remains an ambiguous character: her struggle to break from social conventions is not presented as heroic, yet her actions are not depicted as shameful.