Swamp Angel: Analysis of Major Characters
"Swamp Angel: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the complexities of human relationships and emotional struggles through the lives of its key characters. Central to the narrative is Maggie Vardoe, a young widow who grapples with her discontent in a second marriage to the oppressive Eddie Vardoe. While Maggie exhibits strength and self-sufficiency, her journey is marked by the pain of her past losses and her attempt to reclaim solace through her work at a fishing lodge in British Columbia. The character of Nell Severance, Maggie's elderly friend, contrasts with Maggie's seeking tranquility as she navigates her own physical limitations and offers stability through her bold personality. Hilda Severance, Nell's daughter, embodies the tension between familial obligation and personal desires as she transitions into her own family life, while Eddie Vardoe represents the antithesis of respect and emotional maturity, driving Maggie further away. The dynamic between Haldar and Vera Gunnarsen unveils themes of jealousy and misunderstanding, particularly as Maggie's competence in lodge management incites Vera's insecurities. This intricate web of relationships illustrates the struggle for independence, the longing for connection, and the nuanced interplay of power and vulnerability among the characters.
Swamp Angel: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Ethel Wilson
First published: 1954
Genre: Novel
Locale: Vancouver and the interior of British Columbia
Plot: Regional
Time: The early 1950's
Maggie Vardoe, also known as Maggie Lloyd, a young widow, married for the second time, to a man whom she detests. Her beauty is not immediately apparent, and she makes no effort to look beautiful, but her eyes are large, gray, and “tranquil,” and her body is characterized by “large easy curves.” Maggie is self-sufficient, even secretive, and confides very little about her present unhappiness or the pain of losing her first husband and her daughter, even to her closest friends Hilda and Nell Severance. Having decided to leave her second husband, Eddie Vardoe, she ties fishing flies in secret for more than a year to earn money and slips away one night after dinner so unobtrusively that it takes several hours for her husband to notice her absence. Maggie seeks escape and peace away from the city of Vancouver in the mountains of British Columbia, where she tries to re-create the happy setting of her childhood and first marriage at an East Coast fishing lodge. A naturally nurturing and competent woman, Maggie becomes cook and eventually manager of a fishing lodge owned by Haldar and Vera Gunnarsen at Three Loon Lake. Maggie, who had hoped to escape not only her husband but also all emotional involvement with people, finds that she is faced with several crises caused by Vera's envy of Maggie's competence and increasing influence with Haldar and their son, Alan.
Nell Severance, formerly a beautiful circus performer, now in her seventies, her movement limited by obesity. She married into an aristocratic but eccentric English family. Nell has kept the Swamp Angel, a revolver that she used in her juggling act, as a reminder of her lost power. She sends the revolver to Maggie when she realizes that she is no longer independent physically and fears that she is close to death. Nell's powerful personality enables her to control Eddie after Maggie's disappearance. Nell's unconventional life and her love of drama contrast with both her daughter's conventionality and with Maggie's search for tranquillity and disengagement. Despite her nonconformity, Nell provides wisdom and stability to Maggie.
Hilda Severance, later Hilda Cousins, an attractive young working woman, the daughter of Nell and Maggie's only friend of her own age. She accepts and respects Maggie's reticence. She cares for her mother, whom she both loves and resents for the irregularity of her childhood, but she is drawn away from her and from Maggie by her marriage to Albert Cousins and the birth of her child.
Edward (Eddie) Vardoe, also called E. Thompson Vardoe, a crude, boorish man with “spaniel eyes,” a real estate agent with aspirations to own a business. Eddie's uncouth behavior and his petty tyrannizing about money and the running of the household humiliate Maggie and cause her to leave him as quietly as possible, so as not to be subjected to one of his scenes. Having taken Nell's advice to forget Maggie and find someone else, Eddie becomes involved with “a blonde” who manipulates and humiliates him.
Haldar Gunnarsen, the owner of the lodge at Three Loon Lake. He is passionately attached to the land and determined to keep his lodge in spite of a crippling accident that breaks his hip. Haldar is insensitive to his wife's jealousy of the land and her fear of the future. As he depends more and more on Maggie in the running of the lodge, he fails to understand Vera's jealousy of her. His anger at Vera for precipitating Maggie's departure leads to Vera's suicide attempt and the final reconciliation between the Gunnarsens and Maggie.
Vera Gunnarsen, Haldar's wife, a woman reared in the city and unable to understand the reality of running a lodge. She has grandiose dreams of immediate success and wealth. Vera appears to prefer unhappiness to happiness, and she focuses the blame for all of her misery on Maggie. Maggie's patience with her only increases her sense of resentment and jealousy, and finally she forces a confrontation that causes Maggie to leave the lodge temporarily.