LBravo-Zeena's characterization

Zenobia is the women who takes care of Ethan’s mother before her death. Afterwards, she becomes his
wife because he is frightened of loneliness and wants someone who can take his house out of silence.
However, he realizes that he has committed a mistake marrying her when she becomes always afflicted
by some illnesses (that he considers fake): indeed, they thwart his hopes about moving to a bigger town.
However, if we try tu put in her shoes, we can understand that maybe she uses illness all life to keep her
husband by her side and remain in the land she loves: in fact, she is able to manipulate Ethan according to
his kindness and sense of duty. For this reason I don’t like her attitude, because I consider her as a selfish
and opportunistic person: indeed, she seems to switch continuously from healthy to ill and vice versa
according to how much power she has in a situation. However, the tale also underlines her love for caring
for the sick, which is an admirable attitude. I think she’s not stupid, but a very intelligent and reasonable
person, so I think she clearly understands from the beginning that there is love between Mattie and her
husband; however, she’s able to take them back to her house and care for them even after the accident (of
which I think she has understood the reason), because she loves helping someone in difficulty (however,
this maybe underlines once and again the fact that she loves to be in a state of superiority from the people
she has around).
In conclusion, it can be said that she’s characterized by the writer as a constant contraposition of altruism
and selfishness, which characterizes any human being: everybody is selfish, but we generally try not to
appear (even in front of us) like that.