María Concepción
...grand manner sometimes reminded him of royalty in exile.” (213). She didn’t seem to have many enemies before her breakdown. Afterward, she seemed to be a completely different person. She goes through several different stages throughout her breakdown. At first she was angry. She didn’t make her feelings obvious but everyone seemed to know about the affair. The neighbors went around saying that “María Rosa was safer in the army than she would be in the same village with María Concepción.” (214). María Concepción then seemed to go numb, as if nothing had ever happened. “María Concepción did not weep when Juan left her; and when the baby was born, and died within four days, she did not weep. ‘She is mere stone,’” (215). After this, she went back to being angry, but stayed to herself and kept herself busy. She “[…] lived alone. She was gaunt, as if something were gnawing her away inside, her eyes were sunken and she would not speak a word if she could help it. She worked harder than ever, and her butchering knife was scarcely ever out of her hand.” (216). When Juan and María Rosa returned from the army, her anger reached its limit and she exploded. “The thing which had for so long squeezed her whole body into a tight dumb knot of suffering suddenly broke with shocking violence.” (219). When María Concepción hits her breaking point, everything becomes clear to her; as if to clear the fog in her head. “At once she came to her senses completely, recognized the thing that troubled her so terribly, was certain of what she wanted.” (219). She then lashes out against Juan’s lover, María Rosa, who just gave birth to their baby boy. Juan realizes what she has done to María Rosa, but tries to help her cover it up. He shows that he does love her by doing this, so that she won’t be punished. Her friends also show their love for her when come to her side, knowing she was guilty. One man said, “She is a woman of good reputation among us, and María Rosa was not.” (225). A woman with her baby said, “W...