#843 The Strange and Tragic Ballad of Mabel Pearsall
The title says it all, this tale is both strange and tragic. Mabel teaches seventh grade but has been getting complaints lately. Her behavior has been described as “peculiar.” Her principal notices it, her family notices it and her church notices it. She can’t get out of her own head.
The cause of her distress is the affair she believes is going on between her husband and another woman, a woman who drops off her child every week to have Mabel babysit. She believes this child is her husbands. So she lets the thought fester, and foment and drive herself to tragic ends.
Mabel is clearly going through a nervous breakdown. The normal grind of motherhood has become tedious and without the level of support or personal respect she needs, she lets little things turn big. Whether or not her husband is having an affair is not clear, not to the reader. We have sympathy for Mabel, maybe right up until the end, but that doesn’t mean we don’t see her going a bit crazy.
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