Mademoiselle Reisz is an old spinster who most on the island to be disagreeable. For  both Robert and Edna, however, she becomes both a confidante and friend. She is a musician as Edna is an artist, and speaks to Edna using both her words and her music.

     "...the artist must possess the courageous soul... the soul that dares and defies (p63)."                   -Mademoiselle Reisz

     Friendship with an unmarried woman turns out to be a stronger influence upon Edna's actions than either she or Mademoiselle Reisz could have known. The other women in her life, such as the maternal and virtuous Madame Ratignolle, are in situations similar to her own. They are wives, mothers, and women of high society. These women's lives are all about appearances and pleasing others, as Mademoiselle Reisz's is not. It is stated that "the woman, by her divine art, seemed to reach Edna's spirit and set it free (p78)."

     "Mademoiselle Reisz put her arms around me and felt my shoulderblades, to see if my wings were strong, she said. 'The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth (p83).'"       
                            -Edna Pontellier