Gwen Bristow’s, Celia Garth, delivers many dynamic characters throughout the entirety of the novel. Vivian Lacy is no anomaly to Bristow’s wide array of developed personas. Throughout the novel Mrs. Lacy is portrayed in many different lights. Her experience and loss has driven her to an extended knowledge of wisdom and key sense of awareness. In Gwen Bristow’s, Celia Garth, her character Vivian Lacy is a woman who has lost more than she has gained, yet is able to use her adverse past to not only help herself, but the others around her, Mrs. Lacy is a woman who has had more taken from her life than most people in this day and age could handle yet her caring personality gives no indication of the losses she has faced. Bristow’s portrayal of
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Lacy’s experience in hardships undoubtedly gives her many characteristics that are able to help the characters around her, whether they listen or not. From losing so many husbands one of Vivian’s greatest traits is her wisdom, which she applies to nearly every situation. Noticing that Celia is falling into the same trap of love that Vivian had with Mr. Ansell she warns Celia “Don’t fall in love, it is only asking for trouble”(Bristow 77). Vivian’s extensive loss had given her the belief that love only leads to grief which is true at one point or another. From Vivian’s experience she is able to apply the wisdom she had picked up on to Celia. However Celia does not listen and she is left widowed after her fiance had been killed just like Vivian’s husband was in the French Indian War. Celia was not able to recognize the loss and the experience that Vivian had. Another trait that Vivian had gained from her experience and heavy loss was her ability to empathize with the characters, especially Celia. Throughout the book there are many key examples of Vivian are nurturing Celia through her loss however none strikes the reader greatly as when Vivian tells Celia “[In reference to loss] You live through it”(Bristow 221). Vivian is able to empathize and relate to Celia because she had lived through the loss of a loved one many times before. Not only had Vivian lost husbands, she had been put with the grief of burying some of her own children, making her an expert in loss and how to deal with
Lacy’s experience in hardships undoubtedly gives her many characteristics that are able to help the characters around her, whether they listen or not. From losing so many husbands one of Vivian’s greatest traits is her wisdom, which she applies to nearly every situation. Noticing that Celia is falling into the same trap of love that Vivian had with Mr. Ansell she warns Celia “Don’t fall in love, it is only asking for trouble”(Bristow 77). Vivian’s extensive loss had given her the belief that love only leads to grief which is true at one point or another. From Vivian’s experience she is able to apply the wisdom she had picked up on to Celia. However Celia does not listen and she is left widowed after her fiance had been killed just like Vivian’s husband was in the French Indian War. Celia was not able to recognize the loss and the experience that Vivian had. Another trait that Vivian had gained from her experience and heavy loss was her ability to empathize with the characters, especially Celia. Throughout the book there are many key examples of Vivian are nurturing Celia through her loss however none strikes the reader greatly as when Vivian tells Celia “[In reference to loss] You live through it”(Bristow 221). Vivian is able to empathize and relate to Celia because she had lived through the loss of a loved one many times before. Not only had Vivian lost husbands, she had been put with the grief of burying some of her own children, making her an expert in loss and how to deal with