Why does Annie confess to Jonathan upon her return from London?

Why does Annie confess to Jonathan upon her return from London? What would you have done?

I think she felt guilty, and wanted to relieve that guilt. It does not seem to occur to her that making herself feel better will be devastating to her husband. I think she should have said nothing,and suffered though the guilt.

She confesses to relieve herself of the guilt she has been living with. She realizes she has made a mess of her life and is somehow trying to fix it. She also knows someone else is aware of her background (the mail), and is maybe trying to save what she can.

Annie is selfish and doesn't think about Jonathan's feelings.

I think she believed she was doing the right thing. Secrets have a way of biting one in the behind. But it turned out that she was keeping more secrets than she realized.

I think Annie wants to rid herself of the past and feels that if she unburdens her secrets the past will dissolve and she will be forgiven. I see this as a totally selfish gesture with little regard for how this will make her husband feel. I didn't care much for Annie.

She regretted her infidelity and believed that if she were honest and forthcoming immediately, Jonathan would be forgiving.

Again I think that maybe her Catholic upbringing influences the decision but I totally think she thought that if she confessed and asked to be forgiven that he would forgive her and they could go back to being a family and if he didn't then she would be punished for her behavior by loosing her family and I think she might just believe that she deserved to be punished.

Annie had 22 years of a happy marriage and she made one mistake. She was honest with her husband because that's what you should do when you're married to someone, you should be honest with them. And I really don't think at all it's because she was selfish or didn't care about her husband's feelings. I'm sure it was very scary to tell her husband the truth and she was most likely fully aware that it would hurt him. She did it because being honest was better than lying to him about it. Even if he never found out, knowing that she kept that secret would eat away at her and would still harm their relationship. Being honest shouldn't just be for the easy stuff, its important for the things that you know the other person doesn't want to hear as well.

I believe that the saying "The truth will set me free." lead Annie to confess to Jonathan.

She felt guilty but why she would tell him, I have no idea. It was almost as if she wanted him to congratulate her on ending an obsession he never knew about. It seemed odd that this was the time to confess when she had resolved it finally.

Annie and her husband had a long and happy marriage abet with period of indiscretion on her part. Some people felt that she was selfish for being forthcoming with her secret, but there never is a good time to break this type of news to your spouse. I respect her honesty. If I had been him while it would hurt my ego I would respect my wife for finally coming forward with the truth - she would need to understand while I would respect her honesty it would take her time to re-win my trust.

On page 196, when Annie is talking about writing the letter to Louise after she found out that Malcolm was dead, Annie thinks, "I felt responsible, and the only way to shed that burden was to share it, and the only person I could share it with was the one person who would have been better off not knowing the thing I had to confess." I think this could also be applied to why Annie told Jonathan about her one-night stand with Patrick. Telling Jonathan allowed her to "shed that burden." As with most of Annie's actions, I felt that she was trying to make herself feel better at the expense of the feelings of others. She thought that she could confess and Jonathan would forgive her then and there.

Generally I think people confess to ease their own burden with the conscience. These confessions come with very little thought as to the consequences of those confessions. In this case, it made her feel better at a great cost to others.

I think she felt it would relieve her of her guilt for being unfaithful . I don't think she realized the consequences would be so dire.

Annie hoped in telling Jonathan that it would clear her own conscience. He didn't know of her improprieties before she met him. So there may have been a lot guilt built up after being with him for so long and having a family as well. She may have felt the confession relieved some of that guilt in addition.

I think she felt guilty because she never gave up caring about Patrick even though she loved Jonathan. She was also looking for a little excitement because Jonathan is so predicable. When she finds Patrick has not become the man she thought he would, she really feels about not realizing what she has in Jonathan.

Guilt - thinking more about herself and relieving the pain of guilty feelings than considering how hurtful it will be to Jonathan.

I don't think she was selfish. I think in a weird way she was considering Jonathons feelings. Lying and hiding things can tear a marriage apart more readily than admitting an indiscretion. I believe she thought her marriage was strong enough to handle the admission. She didn't expect his reaction

As others have said, she wanted to rid herself of the guilt. I can't decide if I think it was selfish to tell him or worse to keep the secret to herself. She did hurt him and that was bad, yet not telling him, affected the relationship as well.

OK, so I didn't like her anyway and I think she confesses because she felt guilty, but I think she should have kept her mouth shut - what did it gain in the end except to relive her guilt?

Everyone seems to be saying she felt guilt. But I don't think Annie told him because of guilt. I think she told him because they have an honest relationship and that to keep something from Jonathan would be damaging to what they have together. I think if she felt guilty she would have kept it to herself because she wouldn't want Jonathan to know she was lacking in any way. Annie didn't think anything about Patrick anymore, it was not important, so she could tell.

I'm not sure that honesty is her goal. It didn't matter to her before he found out about the DNA test. I think she felt guilty about the one night stand as well as the paternity thing. I don't think she would have ever told him about that, either, if it hadn't been for the accident.