As we continue reading the novella, we start to get to know Edna better. We see her rediscovering herself, almost as if it was a part of her she had forgotten about. I don't only mean the way she revealed deep and overlooked memories to her recently acquainted friend Adele, but also how she finds her sub conscience desires come back as a vivid reality. This happens through the magic of music. I personally enjoy listening to music, of course the genre varies depending on my emotions. It always seems to find a way of reminding me of something or someone and produces new feelings. All the memories and thoughts that pop up on your mind while listening to music are perhaps the desires our mind truly wants, or even maybe just produces a projection of what it wants us to feel. What I mean with all this, is that I can relate to Edna in the sense that music is an influence in the course of our thoughts, directing them the way it grasps our emotions.
It is so, that in the party Edna attended, she found herself almost living her thoughts. Creating a soup of feelings which ultimately make her drop to tears:
"When she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore. He was naked. His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him" (Chapter IX, page 55).
In the revelation from Edna's thoughts, we find her realizing and discovering new sides of her, perhaps her lost sexuality or her passions. The effects are so much, that Mrs. Pontellier almost finds herself in another reality, staring into her cravings. Also, we know women couldn't express themselves out loud in these times, and these explosions of past desires were only acceptable in her mind. The fact that music snaps immediately these thoughts into her mind, shows the reader the importance this art has in the novella, symbolically speaking. Although Mrs. Pontellier hasn't really been happy with her life in the book, music starts to show her another way. This could even mean a revelation from her part, where she finds her individuality as a woman and sets her goals straight. Mademoiselle Reisz is actually the one who creates the deep and subtle train of thoughts in Edna's eyes. Reisz then says to Edna that she is "the only one worth playing for". This could mean that Mademoiselle Reisz possibly suffers in the same way Mrs. Pontellier does, and fights too for her individuality.
The author might be trying to portray a message to the readers here: Perhaps women in these times only found happiness in their own mind. This would be due to the fact that Edna almost escapes her reality by the alluring sound of music, and actually "the very passions themselves were aroused within her soul, swaying it, lashing it, as the waves daily beat upon her splendid body", giving her an artificial happiness. In fact, music does not only influence Mrs. Pontellier and Mademoiselle Reisz. We learn here that her friend Adele and the twins also find relief in playing music, sadly not in the same way Edna and Reisz do. Playing the piano only compliments the ideal woman Adele should be, not playing for her own satisfaction but instead playing for the social entertainment it creates. The twins are then too, trained to grow up to the expectations of the ideal 19th century woman.
In this part of the book I feel that Edna finds a breakthrough from her troubles, and is left with a little seed of independence Mademoiselle Reisz leaves on her mind. The outburst women will have in this book, feels closer and closer each time.
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