Anna does not seem to be behaving very rationally towards the end. She is exasperating. She appears to have lost her perspective. Her emotions are raw and her thoughts are disjointed. She is constantly ascribing feelings and motives to other people when she has no justification for doing so. Is she actually mentally ill? What would a psychiatrist/psychologist (I don't understand the difference) diagnose?
According to Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence once said that Balzac was 'a gigantic dwarf', and in a sense the same is true of Dickens.
Charles Dickens, by George Orwell
It is a long time ago that I read the book, but I saw a film about it two years ago. She grows desperate. If I remember rightly by assuming her adultery she loses everything she had: her husband, her family (including her children), her friends, her position in society. And she gains nothing because her lover doesn´t want her any more. All doors are closed to her, she doesn´t see any possibility of starting a new life. Quite enough to drive someone mad!
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
When life seems hard, many abandon healthy habits with unpredictable consequences.
"Love does not alter the beloved, it alters itself"
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