Sorrow and Bliss

Patrick invites Martha to do whatever she wants to make the apartment feel like hers, and the place quickly feels like home. However, sometime later Patrick transfers to a hospital in a different part of London, and Martha begins to get home earlier from work as there is not much to do. Ingrid, meanwhile, is preoccupied with the baby, and Martha begins to feel intensely lonely. Her feelings turn to anger and a sense of being unloved, and she begins to throw things at Patrick “in moments of rage that [are] unpredictable and incommensurate with whatever had happened” (174). Patrick doesn’t address these incidents, simply cleaning up the mess once Martha leaves the room.

Martha also faces questions about children when she meets other couples at parties; she initially tells them she can’t have any, then begins to be more direct, saying she doesn’t want any.

In late August, Patrick goes to Hong Kong for his father’s third wedding. Martha doesn’t accompany him because she is feeling unwell, and wakes up two days later unable to get out of bed with a mounting sense of breathless panic. When Patrick calls, she cries on the phone, and he immediately changes his flight, encouraging her to get out of the house while reminding her he loves her.