WRITING: Dramatic Irony

Do we ever think we’re good enough? Do we ever listen to the side that conflicts with what we have chosen to believe?
In “A Seasonal Life” the speaker, for all her focus on her family and a self-image formed from the past that still directs her future, does not truly see herself for what she is, nor give credit to those around her as themselves. She worries, hovers, spending her life trying to make things right for those she loves but sees her present through a cloud of the past, and acts accordingly—perhaps cheating all in her efforts to make up for unnecessary guilt. Spineless in a way, and lied to daily by herself in her actions.
I must go back to my Psychology text, and try to understand. But the obvious influence of Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” is on this story.