Like Margaret, Hulga is intelligent to an extreme degree. My cousin also has a Ph.D., which sometimes makes her insufferable. And she has no wooden leg to excuse her! Hulga once says to her mother, "Woman! Do you ever look inside? Do you ever look inside and see what you are not? God!" Of course the poor, simple Mrs. Hopewell is utterly taken aback by this. Her indulgent behavior however does little to remedy matters, but of course there is the leg.
             Margaret on the other hand, has both beauty, intelligence, a reasonable promise of longevity and a very cozy job at a leading university. Her Ph.D. is not in philosophy, but in French literature. This could however also be quite a philosophical field, and she once tried to cite Racine and Voltaire at us. Like Mrs. Hopewell, Margaret's parents are also unfortunately kind to her and indulges her every intellectual whim. This is by contrast not because they pity her, but because they love to show her off.
             Another contrast with Hulga's situation is that Margaret's parents are themselves intellectually gifted, each with university degrees and careers. So I think they are much better able to support their child in her intellectual efforts than Mrs. Hopewell. Also, Margaret is very grateful for her degree and where her life is leading. This contrasts her strongly with the embittered Hulga, who does everything in her power to upset her alienated mother:
             "When Hulga stumped into the kitchen in the morning (she could walk without making the awful
             noise but she made it – Mrs. Hopewell was certain – because it was ugly-sounding)..."
             Of course Margaret has not reason to do anything like that. She is generally a happy,
             well-adjusted woman. One aspect where she again parallels with Hulga, is the fact that she tends to rely on her intellect rather than emotion to help her in life. This has made her relationships with men somewha...