Mrs Gould is often presented in a setting of natural imagery, which serves to distinguish her from the materialistic or mechanistic Charles Gould. The beauty of the description is clearly meant to make us sympathize with her, but we must be on guard as to the narrator's bias: the "glaring" room was described just before as having "soft" light, and the "stones in the rings" reference seems almost a narrative boycott of the metal on her person. In both cases -- lamplight and natural shade -- the Goulds are out of the sunlight, i.e., remaining within their own proper dream-ideals. In other words, this description does not imply that Emily has been shut out by a stony-hearted Charles, so much as that the two lives are growing separate due to the differences between their incompatible ideals.