When I think of emotional attachment or romantic obsession my thoughts immediately go to Heathcliff and Catherine in Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff loves Cathy, and Cathy loves Heathcliff to a certain extent, but due to social and family circumstances these two will never be together. Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights and returns a powerful man, but that is not going to change the essential circumstances of his relationship with Catherine, just like Robert's return to New Orleans and to Edna's life is not going to change the fact that in this society, Edna and Robert's relationship will never be acceptabe. Heathcliff lives his whole life in the shadows of this impossible relationship. That novel has a very romantic sentimentalty. The Awakening on the other hand is more rooted in a sense of Realism; therefore, Chopin ends her story with Edna unable face a life isolation and lonliness. Edna ends her life to avoid that fate.
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