Flowering Judas

Braggioni’s long-suffering wife, Mrs. Braggioni is still active in the Socialist cause, organizing the girls who work in the cigarette factories and marching in picket lines. However, Laura’s sense of freedom is foreign to Mrs. Braggioni, who accepts her second-class citizen status without question. Her “sense of reality is beyond criticism,” meaning that she is free of the idealistic illusions that plague Laura. She is also devoted to her unfaithful husband and spends nights crying alone, until Braggioni comes home and placates her. Her main function in the story is to represent for Laura what she could become if robbed of her independence by yielding to Braggioni.