Peter Keating’s mother, Mrs. Keating is a poor widow who runs a boardinghouse in Stanton to make money for Keating’s education. She relishes the idea that she has sacrificed so much for her son, and stresses to him that he must earn prestige and money for her sake. She follows him to New York, even though Keating doesn’t want her to, and dissuades him from marrying Catherine Halsey. She insists that Dominique Francon will be better a better wife for him for the sake of his career. Later, when Keating is a sad, broken failure, his mother worries about him and Keating knows that she is hurt and guilty about playing a part in making him what he is.