Part of Chopin's reluctance to pass judgment using the established moral codes may have stemmed from the scientific advancements of the last half of the 1800s. The work of Charles Darwin and his supporters fundamentally changed, or at least challenged, the way people thought about who they were, where they came from, and where they were going. The very idea of evolution necessitated a fundamental shift in thinking, casting previously ironclad ideas into doubt. So, too, does Chopin depict Edna's shift in perspective as causing an irreparable break with her former life, disallowing the possibility that she can simply move back into Léonce's house and resume her limiting life.
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