Luella Hemple

Luella Hemple, wife of Charles Hemple and mother of Chuck Hemple, is a wealthy woman who lives in New York. She places great importance on having independence and a bountiful social life. However, she is plagued with anxiety about her duties and responsibilities to her family, so she hides behind a slew of servants, who come and go based on Luella’s whims. Throughout the story, Luella struggles with mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, and she tries to reconcile her familial responsibilities with her desire for independence.

Luella’s dialogue with Ede Karr at the beginning of the story introduces Luella’s insecurities about her familial responsibilities. When she starts to talk about her baby, Luella tells Ede Karr that the baby “bores” her. However, within the same line of dialogue, Luella remarks that she gets “so nervous that [she wants] to scream” (117) when...