The repression exerted by Madame Lacoin was even more paradoxical when we perceive a crack in the foundation of her conformity: when young, it seems that she herself was forced by her mother into a marriage she found repulsive. She had to “adapt”—and this is where that atrocious word appears—so she abandoned her convictions and, after becoming an authoritarian matron, decided to reproduce the crushing cycle of events. How much frustration and resentment were hidden beneath her self-assurance?
