The Bitter Reality in the Landscape for a Good Wife"For my mother, the time of my childhood was where fair tales failed ." (47) The loss of Edna's dreams led to a loss of her children's dreams and fantasy world. The focus on the Little Mermaid is appropriate. Just as Edna makes the two girls into the tragic figure of the Little Mermaid by blaming their father for leaving/not leaving them, Edna continually makes her children into either tragic figures or villains by blaming them for his broken dreams. In reality, she is a tragic and pathetic figure, unable to see how her children helped her financially. She takes her disappointments and failed dreams and blames them on the girls, as if it's their fault. Simply because of their existence, Edna often seems bored with her daughters' existence. Kay's realization of this fact so early in her life is the most painful part of her story. Carrying the weight of this burden robs children of the opportunity to have their own dreams and fantasies. Their awareness of this bitter reality makes it truly astonishing that she titled this story Landscape for a Good Woman. Middle- and upper-class mothers have certainly heard the message throughout their lives that their responsibility is to care for their children. This certainly leads to a multitude of tasks beyond dressing and feeding, which often result in a loss of freedom for the mother and a feeling of slavery. Getting out of this pattern expected of women and mothers in particular has been a goal of women for many decades. Growing up in a difficult environment, Edna naturally has a very different outlook on life from the standard upper-middle-class belief that a mother sacrifices herself for her children. The emotional bonds between mother and child seem to take a back seat while more immediate needs are taken care of. Edna's standards for what it means to be a good mother are entirely different from those of someone from a different class. She denies the upper class role and defines motherhood in the only way she is capable of, and is not damned by those around her for the way she raises her children..