Dolores Claiborne

“I’m just an old woman with a foul temper and a fouler mouth, but that’s what happens more often than not, when you’ve had a foul life.”

Dolores provides important information about her character, directly describing herself as an older woman whose anger and language may offend her listeners. Yet, rather than just representing herself as repellent, Dolores provides context, noting that her rough life experiences have shaped her and made her “foul.”

“But by then her and me was used to each other. It’s hard to explain to a man […] We was used to each other in the way I s’pose two old bats can get used to hangin upside-down next to each other in the same cave, even though they’re a long way from what you’d call the best of friends.”

In assessing her relationship with Vera, Dolores uses the analogy of bats hanging next to each other in a cave to contextualize the domestic space and experiences they shared every day for years—a life lived together. Thus, while Dolores and Vera didn’t always get along or like each other, they were connected by the shared understanding of the roles and place they occupied in life.

“She had three ways of bein a bitch. I’ve known women who had more, but three’s good for a senile old lady mostly stuck in a wheelchair or in bed. Three’s damn good for a woman like that.”

Dolores characterizes Vera as a “bitch,” or an angry woman who acts outside of the usual societal expectations for women. Yet, Dolores’s description also includes a sense of respect for Vera. By noting that despite Vera’s senility and physical limitations she still exhibited attributes of strength and rebellion against patriarchal norms, Dolores offers a characterization of Vera as both domineering and independent.