In therapy, we are often told that "You aren't angry for the reason you think you are". And most of the time, it's true: there's something else underneath, that we aren't aware of. :-o

(the unconscious is a bitch, and all that jazz ;-)

This seems to me one of those cases: the wife says she's angry because she needs that proposal, but I sense there's lots more stuff underneath (that Dr. Rodman Whiten in part addresses).

Basically, it looks like these two would have never married each other, but they were pressed into it by circumstances. Of course that's far from ideal, but after all what's done is done. If this woman will keep on looking for a past that has never been, she will never find peace: she will always mourn the life she never had, instead of living the life she actually has.