Question #2 Week Four: Sections VIII – IX: Pages 417 – 488

Is Iris responsible for Laura's death? At what points could she have changed the course of events?

Honestly, at this point in the book, I would have to say no. However, she could have refused to marry Richard. She could have protected her more from Richard after her father died. Maybe she could have initiated more dialogue with her to understand her. Maybe she could have attempted to help her adjust to the world around her better. However, Iris is still very young during the parts of the book that I have read.
--BJ

No, Iris isn't responsible for Laura's death. By that point it was clear that Laura's mind worked differently than most, as with her reasoning for having an affair with Richard. However, Iris's lack of action when it came to Laura's removal to the hospital would make a young sister believe she had no one she could trust.

No, Iris is not responsible. I think Laura, in her own way, makes that clear. However, Iris IS responsible for complacency in allowing herself and Laura to be used and manipulated. In the beginning, it was more understandable, but as time went on, she knew more about Richard and Winifred's motivations than she allowed herself to believe. She turned a "blind eye" no pun intended, and that did have devastating consequences for Laura.

I don't think Iris was responsible, but she didn't help things either. I felt like if Laura and Iris could have worked together they would have had a super-mind. But for such a close relationship they seemed oddly detached.

I think that driving off the bridge was just the last in the line of spur of the moment decisions made by Laura (she did after all tell mrs. Murgatroyd that she had to tell Iris that Laura would talk to her later), and that Iris was not directly responsible for Laura's death. The only way Iris could have changed the course of events was by not marrying Richard (which would have led to destitution), or by not telling her about having an affair with Alex Thomas. Relating this information may have been the last straw for Laura, who was evidently very much obsessed with Alex Thomas, as she was with most of the men in her life (such as God and her father, both of whom she feared and worshipped).

But such knowledge was not available to Iris then, and what with Laura being so whimsical and unpredictable, she could not have known what her revelations would do to her younger sister.