What is your opinion about Lucy's relationship with her mother-in-law, Catherine?

What is your opinion about Lucy's relationship with her mother-in-law, Catherine? What do you think the story about Catherine getting rid of the coat Lucy loved say about their relationship?

Did your opinion of Catherine change as you learned more about her past? If so, how? If not, why not?

In many ways Catherine was good to Lucy. Yet she would make remarks about Lucy basically coming from nothing. As far as the coat, it didn't fit Catherine's standards and she didn't respect Lucy enough to allow her to keep it. When I learned that Catherine had visited her daughter, bragged about William the whole time there, and never told William about his sister, I didn't have much respect for her.

I think Catherine was a bit condescending at times and controlling of Lucy, I think William called her by her first name to keep boundaries between them for that reason and Lucy had.no idea how to do that. The coat thing was so inconsiderate as well as how she treated her daughter when she visited her.

Catherine, Lucy’s mother-in-law,picked out Lucy’s clothing. She rode in the front seat while Lucy was relegated to the back. Lucy states that Catherine was “ too much” in William and her marriage. When Catherine was dying and the doctor warned the family that it would not be pretty, Lucy spent the summer with her in semi-hospice care. There was an easy rhythm between them until Lucy in trying to comfort Catherine’s discomfort, even on morphine, said “ Oh, Catherine, it will be soon now, I promise.” Lucy is reduced to tears for all her effort as Catherine raises her arm and tells Lucy to get out for she is a horrible girl and a piece of trash. When Catherine’s family secrets are revealed, both characters and readers rearrange their judgments.

Obviously, a reader's opinion of Catherine changes as the book progresses and Lucy's statements become more revealing and honest. However, that introduction of "[Lucy] comes from nothing" was so disgusting that I disliked her a lot before Catherine's real past was revealed.

Catherine created Catherine. She felt she had left her past behind and it upset her to see Lucy, marry her son, and remind her of who she was and where she came from. She spent a great deal of her time trying to change Lucy, and at the same time making it clear to others that she was improving Lucy: her habits, her clothes. Throughout the novel, the readers feelings about Catherine change because Lucy 's feelings change and she is telling us the story based on her own emotions as she learns more about Catherine and herself.

Catherine wanted Lucy to erase her past. she felt that becoming a shiny, new version would help Lucy fit in. What I perceived as cruelty on Catherine's part took on a new light when we became aware of Catherine's past. I think Catherine never got over leaving her daughter behind.

Catherine's relationship with Lucy was purposeful and all about Catherine. Lucy was just along for the ride as Catherine reinvented her life using Lucy as part of her plan in the role of heroine. The coat incident was heartless and self-serving as much of what she did was, as we learned over time. I don't blame Catherine for wanting to reinvent her life, just the way she did it, but I sympathize with any suffering she endured for abandoning her daughter. Catherine and her son shared some personality traits, one glaring of which is their self-centricity.

I didn't like Catherine in the slightest. I felt she was often unintentionally cruel to Lucy. Knowing more about her background maybe explained it a bit, but it didn't change my opinion of the woman.

Catherine is, in my opinion, the most complex and interesting character in the book. She abandoned her daughter to build a new life, and to re-invent herself. She had the strength and determination to accomplish that, and anything else she decided to do. We get no clue about her feelings when William married someone with a background similar to hers. Did she think she could help Lucy to overcome her insecurities, or was she simply domineering and at times cruel to Lucy?

Lucy was overwhelmed by Catherine in every way. She put up with Catherine’s cruelties and domination because she was so much in awe, and it took years for Lucy to push back a little. Once Lucy discovered Catherine’s true history, her view of Catherine became more angry as well as more understanding, and it appeared to free Lucy from some of her illusions about Catherine as well as provide a bit of understanding.

The more I found out about Catherine, the more I disliked her. Perhaps I would have had more compassion if she’d been better to Lucy instead of cruel.

Catherine took advantage of Lucy's growing up in poverty and not having many (if any) world experiences to control her. And on the surface, Catherine seemed nice, and to love Lucy, but I feel it was somewhat phony. I recall a passage where she bought some clothes for Lucy, not at a nice Fifth Avenue department store (which she clearly could have afforded), but at a store that seemed to be a step up from a Goodwill resale store. And at Catherine's funeral, one of the friends made reference to something Catherine had told her about Lucy's past, and Lucy got the distinct impression that it was negative.

Lucy's mother-in-law comes from the same kind of background that Lucy does and has created her own upper middle class persona from whole cloth. She likes Lucy but is also threatened by her because of their similarities. So, while she likes Lucy and wants to raise her to what she perceives as William's social level, she wants Lucy to understand that she is doing this and be grateful for it. She wants Lucy both to appreciate that she is in a lower social class and that Catherine is helping her rise out of it. Lucy is naturally uninclined to do either.

Catherine was cruel and self-centered. Later when we find out more about her, it doesn't really change my opinion of her.

I think Lucy's mother-in-law pretended to be more than Lucy and continued to deceive as if she cared for Lucy because she felt sorry for her situation. When the story turned, and I found out about the mother-in-law's past, I was disappointed to find that her background was the same and she had no right to judge Lucy as she did.

It was a complicated, complex relationship made more so by Catherine's self-loathing. The psychological term "projection" kept coming to mind when I read the comments Catherine made to Lucy, starting with the "[Lucy] comes from nothing." That was really a statement about herself, but she spent decades cultivating an image that was at odds with reality. I thought she was threatened in some ways by Lucy, i.e., her son brought home a woman who was too much like her and she lived her life in fear that her truth would be revealed. I found Catherine to be a deeply sympathetic character in many ways because of her need to hide and the wretchedness that waged within her. She was guilt-ridden and we have to bear in mind that society harshly judges a woman who does the things she did -- even more so all those years ago. Lucy displayed her heart and generous spirit in her dealings with Catherine, which I found touching.