Help with my story, please!?

Question

My story is set in the early victorian era. I've already started the book, but I'm not confident about the plotline.
There are two sisters, let's say there names are Anne and Mary. They've always gotten along, but because Anne is older and always wanted to be superior to her sister, when Mary becomes engaged to George, Anne steals that guy away. But, an incident occurs where Anne causes an accident and Mary becomes blind from it. Anne feels guilty, gives up her life to serve Mary, not out of love but GUILT. Anne immediately loses interest in George. Meets another guy named...Edward, but Mary falls earnestly in love with this guy as well, as does Anne. But due to guilt, Anne backs off from this guy. Out of jealousy and guilt, the love Anne once had for Mary turns to hatred. But basically, this story is about guilt.

Any phsychological analysis of their characters or...anything?
And how should I end this story?

Should I have Edward leave Anne in the end of the story, and make it a kind of redemption when she realizes that though Edward would leave her, her sister Mary would never have left her? And so she realizes that the love between sisters are stronger, or something?

Or, should I make it so that Anne dies from her own guilt?

Answer 1

I think that Anne shows some tinge of love in her caring for Mary even though guilt is the predominant emotion that is making her do what she does. And the fact that both sisters honestly love Edward brings back in that angle. It seems as though your story is about guilt, but the love aspect can't be ignored.

Now out of guilt Anne backs away from Edward, but out of love what would Mary do? And then what does that inspire in Anne?

The ending will work itself out when you decide what the ladies will both do for love or for guilt.

Answer 2

I like the Edward leaving Anne idea.

Answer 3

This reminds me of something I did in the book I'm writing which includes two twin female characters who feel very competitive toward one another, but use their mutual competitiveness to push one another to achieve. More constructive than what Anne and Mary have going on, but there's nothing wrong with deriving a serious conflict in your characters as you have.

I am fascinated by something and I still do not know what I want to say in my book about this, but here it is: I saw this nature documentary one time, where these three male cheetahs who were siblings approached a female in heat. They hissed at one another, and the stage was set for a fur-ripping fight over exactly which male would father the next generation. But when it came down to it, they didn't fight. One of them stepped up and claimed the prize unopposed. The narrator explained that the cheetah brothers were so genetically identical, it was not in their biological interest to fight. It did not matter which one of them would be the father. It only makes sense to have an all-out contest if there is more genetic difference between the males.
Now, it's not the same for females. Females are not biologically motivated to sow wild oats as males do, but rather to carefully select their male. "Sperm is cheap, and childrearing is costly," the narrator said later.
I don't mean to reduce humans to biological machines with purely clinical motives, and to allege that the wonderfully complex emotions we experience are facades to dress up those motives. I feel honest fascination with biological motives and want to get to the bottom of them to figure out what I want to say in this subplot of my story.
I don't know if this helps you any.

Answer 4

the first one is better, it has a meaning, a meaning that may help her realize something, then when she realizes that, you can make Anne die, and then it's more painful for Mary, but if not, you may end it with just the meaning!