As she confides many of these things to Madame Ratignolle, she experiences for the first time a genuine expression of her small self, which intoxicates her "like wine, or like a first breath of freedom." Relating her history of minor rebellions and hopeless passions, she sets the stage for her development that summer into the kind of woman who is strong enough to act on her dissatisfaction with her role as wife and mother that is so far from her true personality, which craves independence.
Significantly, she tells Madame Ratignolle "sometimes I feel this summer as if I were walking through the green meadows again; idly, aimlessly, unthinking and unguided." Not only does this description foreshadow her death in water that reminds her of waves of grass, but also indicates that Edna is once again "running away from prayers," turning her back on the values of organized religion and her own culture.
Note that Edna realizes with relief after she is married that "no trace of passion . . . colored her affection [for Léonce], thereby threatening its dissolution." Ironically, her lack of passion for her husband drives her to Robert, who attempts to portray himself as a grandly passionate man. Further, if all passion eventually burns itself out, so too will her love for Robert, a fact she realizes in the end.
While Chapter 7 depicts Madame Ratignolle as not much of a thinker (she objects when Edna becomes momentarily analytical), Chapter 8 reveals her as a shrewd realist about interpersonal dynamics, asking Robert to "let Mrs. Pontellier alone." Having heard Edna's confession of past infatuations, Madame Ratignolle is attempting to short circuit the likely development of an attachment that can cause only marital and social conflict.
