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East of Eden

Mrs. Trask

Cyrus's first wife is Adam Trask's mother. "Mrs. Trask was a pale, inside-herself woman. No heat or sun ever reddened her cheeks, and no open laughter raised the corners of her mouth. She used religion as a therapy for the ills of the world and of herself, and she changed the religion to fit the ill." She contracts Cyrus's disease and commits suicide by drowning, convinced that she has been punished by God for her imaginary "nocturnal philandering" while Cyrus was away.