Laura's (Lolly's) Outsider Status

I’m not sure if we have a blog post due today, but I figured I would write one just in case. While I was reading Lolly Willowes, I began thinking about how Laura is presented as an outsider in the book, and I found myself comparing her outsider status to Pip’s in Great Expectations. To me, the crucial, defining difference between the two was that while Pip’s outsider status was largely due to factors of circumstance, Laura seems to create her station as an outsider. Pip aspires to fit in – the bulk of his concerns seem to focus on societal perception of him. Laura, on the other hand, seems to have a more internal focus. She ignores the prevailing public notion that a woman of a certain age should get married, even when there are many around her (including family) who try to urge her to do so. She wants to continue living with her father in Lady Place, and I get the sense that had her father not died, she would have continued to do so until her own death, because she does not seem very connected to Caroline and Henry nor overly eager about living with them. I found it interesting when she talked about returning to Lady Place to visit James after her father’s death, saying that being back at the place she used to call home was like having a “clear sheet of glass” between herself and her surroundings. This, I think, really highlights the idea that with her father gone, she is more of an outsider than ever before – living with people she doesn’t really relate to, and being told to do things she doesn’t really want to do.