EN 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 36: Robert R. Reisz
Document Summary
Throughout the awakening, the manner in which each of the characters uses and understands music gives us a sense of edna"s ideological alignment in relation to the novel"s other characters. Additionally, edna"s exploration of music and her meditations upon its significance enable her own (visual) art to flourish. Edna first learns about the emotive power of music from mademoiselle reisz. Whereas ad le ratignolle"s piano playing had merely conjured sentimental pictures for edna, the older woman"s playing stirs new feelings and probes unexplored emotional territories in her. Reisz uses music as a form of artistic expression, not merely as a way of entertaining others. In contrast to mademoiselle reisz, the farival twins play the piano purely for the sake of the gathered company. The twins" association with the virgin mary, and, hence, with a destiny of chaste motherliness, links them thematically with notions of how victorian women should behave.
