Emily’s life is more tragic than triumphant.

During her childhood, she lived a miserable life. In addition to having to endure her father’s death, Emily was “[thrown]” away by her mother when she was still young. She lost both of her parents in a relatively short time, becoming an unwanted orphan.

She was also constantly reminded by the relatives she lived with that they “took [her] out of the gutter, when [her] mother threw [her] away.” Emily has to live with her viewing of herself as worthless and insignificant, always wallowing in self-pity. Such a life is tragic.

In the early years of her marriage, Emily was triumphant in different areas. She gained the favour of her mother-in-law, in possession of an expensive big diamond ring given by her mother-in-law, “[had] the homage of the brother and sister-in-law”, and ultimately becoming the ultimate matriarch of the family. However, she is not all that successful as she appears to be. Such triumph in her life lead to further problems such as the increase dabbling in family politics and increase tension between the family members.

Her life was somewhat triumphant. Her eldest son soared in his academic studies and even qualified for “a famous college in London”. However, this triumph was short-lived and quickly replaced by tragedy. Richard went to England and failed his exams in the first year. Later on, Richard abandoned his studies and Emily’s plan for his life to work in Salisbury Riding School. Eventually, Richard also committed suicide, “hanging himself with the long leather reins…used for training horses”. Emily lost “her big strong son” the jewel of her life and hence it was tragic. “It was the worst shock of [her] whole life.”

In Kheong’s case, Emily was triumphant in the fact that she deterred Kheong from seeing “the whore Diana Lee” and somewhat salvaged their marriage. Emily even succeeded in making Kheong stay faithful to her, “never went astray again…till he died.” Emily’s life was triumphant then.

This triumph she had was again replaced by sadness and shock when she was “[kept] out of his [ward]” and refused to be seen by her husband. Her life was tragic, she was sad, “her voice is subdued, filled with pain”. Her triumph in getting her husband’s faithfulness was replaced by her husband’s tragic refusal to see her. And perhaps the worst representation of her tragic life is that in the end, after the deaths of two of her closest family, she still did not understand “why did [they] both hate [her]?” She did not even think she “[did] anything wrong”. Emily did not understand why Richard and Kheong “hated” her and that is very tragic.

In conclusion, Emily’s life is more tragic than triumphant. Almost all her triumph in her life was quickly replaced by tragedy as shown above. In the end, she also is alone in Emerald Hill and there to reflect on her life and hence tragic: she started out alone and ended alone.