What Does the Wedding Ring Symbolize?

The wise Jimmy Fallon once said: "Thank you, hard taco shells, for surviving the long journey from factory, to supermarket, to my plate and then breaking the moment I put something inside you. Thank you."

 

Unfortunately, for Edna Pontellier her wedding ring isn't as fragile as Jimmy Fallon's taco shells and just like she discovered in chapter seventeen:"Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying there, she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it. But her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the little glittering circlet." (103) wedding rings are pretty hard to break. 

Sorry, Edna :(

So... she ends up breaking a glass instead. 

(Edna at Mr. Pontellier. Or just every guy in her life for that matter)

Alright Edna, first things first, rings in general aren't easy to get rid off (if you don't believe me just ask Frodo Baggins) specially if it's a wedding ring, given what they symbolize.

Oh yeah. So what does the wedding ring symbolize? Anyone would argue that the wedding ring symbolizes Edna's marriage. And her throwing the ring like a baseball to the other side of the room and stomping on it as if it were the terrible grades you keep getting on each and everyone of your math tests is Edna's way of saying she's done with Mr. P. 

And in a way it does symbolize that. She's officially done with Mr. Pontellier and the constant gibberish that comes out of his mouth, claiming Edna is a bad mother when she's not aware of her sons fever; however, Mr. Pontellier's idea of good parenting is clearly lighting up a cigar in his son's face because it's 1899, am I right? 

"Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking after. Then he lit a cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke it." (21)

So in a way Edna's rage towards the wedding ring could symbolize her frustration towards a marriage that lacks pretty much everything a good marriage doesn't. But it could also symbolize the "portrait of a woman desperate to break through the bonds of domesticity and embark into the unknown."

"Who run the world? GIRLS" -Beyoncé

If we look deeper into the meaning of the ring itself and the action of Edna stamping it with her foot, we could also find that this scene symbolizing Edna's frustration towards a society that pretty much confines and coerces women into being submissive beings is also a pretty valid option. And this becomes clear as we continue reading further into the novel and our questions as to what Edna's awakening is begin to be answered. Edna's awakening is breaking free from the claws of patriarchy and pretty much doing what she loves (painting) and being herself as well as relying on herself. 

Like, for example, in chapter twenty six when Edna decides to move out of her house because "The house, the money that provides for it, are not mine." (149) and later on she says "I know I shall like it, like the feeling of freedom and independence." (150). So in the end, we realize that Edna's rage quit was actually the beginning of the end for the old Edna, and now it's time for the "pseudo-intellectual" version of herself (like the doctor would call it) to step up and take charge.

However, the fact that Edna can't completely destroy the ring (unlike Frodo) or even make an indenture means something new entirely. At the end of the day gender roles are something that's been building up and existing from the very beginning of human civilization and unfortunately it's not something Edna can change overnight.

I mean, Good luck telling Mr. Pontellier to make a sandwich.

(Mr. Pontellier when Edna begins to speak her mind)

That will definitely work out fine. 

But don't let Edna fool you, because even though she's all:

she seems to forget this every time someones mentions Robert.