Claude is a cuckold. From the very beginning of the story,
when he and his wife, Mrs. Turpin, are in the doctor's office, she tells him where to
sit:
"Claud,
you sit in that chair there," and gave him a push down into the vacant
one.
Claud then proceeds to
do what his wife tells him because he is "used to doing what she told him to
do."
Later, Claud tries to stand up, but his wife
immediately yells at him to sit back down, that he is not supposed to be standing on his
sore leg. When another patient speaks to Claud and asks him what has happened to his
leg, Mrs. Turpin does not give him a chance to respond, but answers for him - "He got
kicked by a cow."
After the girl attacks Mrs. Turpin, Claud
is overcome after trying to help her and left struggling on the floor. When Mrs. Turpin
comes to, she asks for him, and tries to find him - illustrating that she is
controlling. When they go home, go to bed and then wake up, Mrs. Turpin orders Claud to
kiss her, which he dutifully does.
Mrs. Turpin is an
overbearing woman and a shrew and her treatment of her husband is used by the author to
reinforce these aspects of her character.
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