controlled by the status quo. She has willingly worked hard to conform to Tom’s desires – wanting more than anything to provide him with the picture-perfect family life he expects. This willingness made her susceptible to the abusiveness of that status quo, and so she was led deep into a pit of self-loathing and destroyed self-esteem – whereupon she was brutally abandoned to wallow in her despair alone. Anna is the middle-ground. She has been drawn into this status quo, but has not yet succumbed to its worst effects – she is punished the least, purely for the fact that she realises that she must appear to conform in order to survive.

It is the abuse of Rachel that brings the whole thing into sharpest relief, though. She is, effectively, institutionalised by patriarchy. Tom’s treatment...

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