Natalia also felt quite alone because her mother had died when she was young and she had no one to turn to for advice.
Right from the start she is manipulated and controlled by Quimet. At their first meeting he told her that in one year she would be his wife even though she was engaged with someone else. He gave her the name Colometa putting his own stamp onher and disregarding her wish to be called by her real name Natalia.
Later on in their marriage she is totally subservient to him and she does what he tells her. "If I want to be his wife I had to start by liking everything he liked".
He is a macho man who knows that she does not expect a lot of from life. He made her quit her job and stopped her meeting with Pere, moreover, he made her break up with him. He also made her to respect his friend Cintet, who she could not stand.
Later in the book, we see that Natalia is tortured in her situation. Her children do not have enough to eat, that´s why she decided to sent Antoni to the camp even he beg and he did not want to. Natalia did not feel good when she was leaving him there but she decided that she have to be strong and don´t show how bad she feels.
Natalia´s night mare were the doves living in her apartment because of them she became crazed and she did not see way out. "When I was walking through the streets on my way to work at my bosses´house, the sound of cooing followed me and buzzed in my brain like a bumblebee".
She feels trapped in her life but she does not complain or cry out. She slowly plants to kill her children by poisoning them with hydrochloric acid and so end all the misery. Moreover, she feels alone and helpless.
She married Quimet because for an ordinary uneducated young girl there was nothing elso to do other than get married to someone who had his own shop and money, someonbe who was strong and she thought she could depend on.
In actual fact Quimet made her into his own personal slave. "He wanted me to take his shoes off and put on his checkered coffee-and-milk-collored slippers". When Quimet´s bussiness did not go well and he was spending money on a motorbike and doves, Natalia started working for old couple. The old couple took advantage of her and she accepted their terms because she felt she would nor be able to find another job. So again, Natalia felt completely trapped in her situation.
She could not stand so many doves anymore but she was scared to stand uip to Quimet. So she decided to get of them in a secret way by upseting them.
Finally, she ends up marrying antoni. Again, we see here that she just falls into the situation, Antoni is well off and he is kind to her. She feels, she has no other way out. However, she has to accept the fact that he is impotant. With Antoni she had a maid, new clothes, furniture, love and respect that she did not have with Quimet.
At the end of the novel she is happy with her life.
One might expect something different from a typical Spanish women in 1930´s. A typical Spanish women would be in control of her household and would have a mind of her own. She would have to obey her husband to a certain extant but she would be the one to run the household and would be a lot more outspoken if she disagrred with her husban about thigs.
Natalia on the other hand was very passive and reacted to everything with quiet resignation. Natalia kept a lot of pain deep down inside her.
