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The film relies heavily on gothic folktale in its portrayal of womans" struggle for sexual identity and freedom. Ada is caught within Bluebeards plot, and it is Stewart who wields his axe. Ada is the innocent bride, delivered to her new husband-master, and left, trapped in her patriarchal prison. Stewart, himself a victim of the same society, and blind to the importance of the piano, is unable to communicate with her, and turns to his more easily controlled plantation. But as he will learn, "building walls and declaring boundaries. creates both the possibility - and the desire - to transgress any or all of them" (Williams, p44).
In an attempt to retrieve the piano, Ada and Flora are drawn towards Baines, who agrees to accompany them back to the beach. Her look and body language, mimicked by Flora, reveal to the audience that Ada finds him physically attractive. Ada, reunited with her piano, is whole again, and her joy, expressed though her music, touches something in Baines. During this idyllic moment, Ada, revealing herself through her music, becomes an object of sexual desire. This sets off a chain of events in which Baines, aware of the importance of the piano, obtains it, as an excuse to get Ada to his cabin.
Like the heroine in Bluebeard, and the already dammed Eve of Milton's patriarchal vision, Ada is drawn toward the sinful secret chamber, Baine's cabin, and the sexual secrets that lie waiting within. Baine's house is Romantic in a "Wordsworthian" sense; it is "green to the very door"; (Wu, p266) nature surrounds, and invades, it is at one with the property and people. Here, unlike Ada's own home the sounds of wildlife permeate; all is in natural harmony. Baine's environment and relationship with the natives acts only to highlight the deficiencies in Stewart's world. The scene by the river, with Baines and the natives, show the ease with which they discuss subjects taboo in Victorian society.