Lizzie West

Further names: Lizzie, Miss West, Mrs. Deering, mother, wife, poor little teacher

The main character of the story “The Letters” is Lizzie West. The entire story is written from her point of view. She is twenty-five years old, has “[…] pretty brown hair and eyes that reach out trustfully to other eyes […]” (Lewis 179); she often seems very “[…] shy and sequestered […]” (Lewis 180).

Miss West works five times a week as a house teacher for Juliet Deering, the daughter of Mr. Vincent Deering and Mrs. Deering. The “[…] poor little teacher liv[es] in Mme. Clopin’s Pension Suisse at Passy […]” (Lewis 179) with other girls. For two years, Lizzie walks from the station at St. Cloud to the Deering’s house by foot. She never thinks of herself being a “[…] heaven-sent teacher […]” (Lewis 177) however, she always tends to her pupils dutifully. If there is something to ask for or talk about Juliet’s education Lizzie has to approach Vincent Deering, Juliet’s father, since Mrs. Deering is busy reading novels and magazines and doesn’t seem interested in her daughter. Lizzie has a lot of respect for Mr. Deering and his work. She gives him angelic-like attributes when she enters the studio: “[…] she almost heard the rustle of retreating wings as she approached.” (Lewis 179)

One day, after she wants to hand in her resignation, Vincent kisses her in his studio and that kiss awakens Lizzie’s love for Vincent. From that time forward, they meet each other on Thursday and Sunday, Lizzie’s free days, but they “[…] never kissed [each other] again under his own roof” (Lewis 180). Lizzie is very strict about keeping her “[…] professional honor […]” (Lewis 180) and this is the reason why they meet outside of her working place. Their meetings take often place in museums or galleries, places that are very interesting for Lizzie because it was her “[…] ‘artistic’ tendencies that had drawn her to Paris […]” (Lewis 180) in the first place and in Vincent she found someone to share her interests. After Mrs. Deering left Paris to visit relations in St. Raphaël, Vincent and Juliet join her a month later. After Vincent’s return, Lizzie goes to the Deering’s house in order to tend to her work. Lizzie learns about the death of Mrs. Deering after Vincent tells her about it. Since “[s]he seldom saw a newspaper, since she could not afford one for her own perusal […]” (Lewis 182) she couldn’t have read about Mrs. Deering’s death. When Vincent tells Lizzie that he has to leave Paris to go to America, Lizzie has the feeling of “[…] a cold knife in her breast […]” (Lewis 183) and feels “[…] [a] wave of weakness at her heart.” (Lewis 183) At their last meeting, in a room at a “[…] quiet restaurant on the Seine […]” (Lewis 184), after spending an hour together they make a pact. It consists of the promise to write letters to each other, which make Lizzie’s world center around these, after Vincent’s departure. At that time the friendship to Lizzie’s roommate Andora Macy begins. Lizzy is at first hesitant to have any contact with her, since Andora has traits that repel Lizzie but in her happiness about her love for Vincent she feels sorry for Miss Macy and in Lizzie’s eyes Andora will never experience what Lizzie feels. Lizzie’s opinion about the other girls living in Mme. Clopin’s Pension Suisse at Passy is similar: that they are “[…] older, duller, less alive than she, and by that very token more thrown upon her sympathy.” (Lewis 186) After receiving the first letters from Vincent she starts to struggle with her response to him. She wants “to pour out all she felt [but also feared] her extravagance should amuse or even bore him.” (Lewis 186) She is simply “[u]nused to the expression of personal emotion […]” (Lewis 185/186). But Vincent’s letters, in which he writes so beautifully about his feelings, she cherishes to the fullest. So much so, that “[…] she wore [the three letters] all day in her shabby blouse […]” (Lewis 186). The only complaint she has about his letters is that they don’t reveal anything and contain only very vague implications about their joint future, but she never asks him about it. Then, when there are no more letters from Vincent, her first instinct is, that Andora might have taken them and is keeping them from her. But over the course of time and the continuance of Vincent’s silence “[…] she now charged herself with having been too possessive, too exacting in her tone” (Lewis 189). After three years pass, Lizzie inherits money from a cousin and is now part of Paris’ high society. She soon finds out that money cannot buy happiness: “[…] she presently found that it had destroyed her former world without giving her a new one.” (Lewis 191) She is sitting at a restaurant in Paris with Andora, her cousins and a gentleman called Mr. Jackson Benn. She sees in him a good match as a husband for her new life although she doesn’t love him. She sees security in marriage, even if that means not to be in love. Suddenly, Vincent Deering comes to their table and back into Lizzie’s life. After receiving a note from Vincent, she wonders how his letters would have been, however, “[…] she threw the note into the fire before she dared to reply to it.” (Lewis 192) She agrees to meet with Vincent and although she is angry with him he “[…] became, as usual, the one live spot in her consciousness” (Lewis 192) when she faces him now in her room. Lizzie is a very compassionate person when it comes to Vincent especially and is willing to put his pain before hers: “[…] to cause her to feel his possible unhappiness with an intensity beside which her private injury paled.” (Lewis 196) She forgives Vincent and they marry soon after. They have a son and Andora lives with them in Neuilly, Paris. For Lizzie, an organized life is very important since “[s]he had never unlearned the habit of orderly activity […]” (Lewis 198). Andora and Lizzie are occupied with Vincent’s matters on this morning. Vincent’s former landlady has sent his belongings back which the two women tend to now. Lizzie’s son is playing with a bag that he opens and Andora finds Lizzie’s letters, all unopened. Lizzie is shocked and requests Andora to take her son and leave her alone. Slowly, Lizzie realizes that “[s]he could have forgiven him now for having forgotten her; but she could never forgive him for having deceived her.” (Lewis 202)

With the words “I loathe you – I loathe you!” (Lewis 203) it is clear that her love for Vincent is gone and replaced by hate. Another striking thought occurs to her that “[p]erhaps he had come back from America on purpose to marry her […]” (Lewis 203) when he must have found out that she is rich now. She ponders about possible plans of confronting him about the letters but refuses to fulfill any of them. She is just too torn between leaving him and not mentioning the letters and stay by her husband’s side. She knows that Vincent cheated her but she is rather willing to live a lie since “[…] she could not see herself and the child away from Deering.” (Lewis 204) When Lizzie sees her husband leave unexpectedly, she blames Andora for interfering her plans as she did that time, when she was still living with her friend at the pension. After Andora comes back and assures her that she didn’t speak to Vincent Lizzie noticed how “[…] she had gradually adjusted herself to the new image of her husband as he was, as he would always be.” (Lewis 206) She decides to stay and not confront Vincent with the letters; therefore she chooses the easier option and will stay in this marriage, although it is built on lies.