Walter’s mother acts as a foil to Elizabeth, meaning that her presence in the story reveals important information about Elizabeth’s character. Specifically, the juxtaposition of the two characters helps readers understand just how alienated Elizabeth is from her husband. The following passage, for example, demonstrates how comfortable Walter’s mother is in expressing grief after hearing that her son got into a mining accident, while Elizabeth’s reaction to the news is much colder:
The grandmother slowly wiped her eyes. The fountains of her tears were stopped by Elizabeth’s directness. She wiped her eyes slowly.
“Poor child! eh, you poor thing!” she moaned. “I don’t know what we’re going to do, I don’t—and you as you are—it’s a thing, it is indeed!”
[…]
Elizabeth’s thoughts were busy elsewhere. If he was killed—would she be able to manage on the little pension and what she could earn?—she counted up rapidly.
Here, Walter’s mother “wipe[s] her tears” and “moan[s]” over Elizabeth’s fate, while Elizabeth herself shows little emotion, automatically starting to think about how she would be able to take care of herself and her children on “the little pension” she would receive from the mining company. While readers are aware that Elizabeth felt disconnected from her husband before this moment, it’s only in witnessing her cold reaction here that they realize just how isolated she has been.
