The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence has various intricate human relationships which importantly depict the nature of human interactions and relationships. Apparently, people form and develop relationships differently and for different purposes. In the novel, there are many intricate human relationships. One of these relationships is the relationship between Hagar and Lottie. The two women from totally different backgrounds and different upbringings join forces as two strange bedfellows with a common objective.
As kids, the two never got along. Lottie, who was born out of wedlock and never knew her father, was a target of ridicule from other kids including Hagar. Due to being born out of wedlock and not knowing her father, Lottie was nicknamed No-Name Lottie. It became the name the other kids adopted to tease her. Hagar on the other had was a born to the family of a renowned Manawaka business person. Like the other kids, she enjoyed making fun of Lottie. At this point, what the two shared would not qualify for a relationship; they were just two kids who knew each other. In Hagar’s recollection, she hated Lottie the way the boy and the other girls did. She states “we never called Lottie No-Name, though – only the boys did that still we tittered at it, knowing was a mean, feeling half-ashamed tumult (Laurence, 1998). The hate they had toward Lottie was a product the thought that she was different from them and had a kind of aura that they could not identify with her. She was cast aside and never invited to parties. Lottie ignored all the teasing and with her mother seemed to create their own world.
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As they grow, their relationship seems to become one of great indifference especially from Hagar’s attitude toward Lottie. This development was a product of Lottie development and the attention it was attracting. Hagar notes that “Lottie bloomed into a veritable handedly rose they people recognized” (Laurence, 1998). She quickly became the icon that everyone talked about, even the boys who usually enjoyed teasing her now wanted to be identified with her. The indifference the Hagar felt toward Lottie was a sign of her jealousy towards her.
However, their relationship would not remain bitter taste forever, since the two would be brought together by the fate to form an alliance and joined hands for a common objective. This turn in their relationship unfolds when their children become lovers. Hagar got very upset when she learned that her son intended to marry Lottie’s daughter. She felt that the two young lovers were destined to make a mistake since their plan to get married was reckless. To halt their plans, Hagar seeks an alliance with an unlikely person, Lottie. According to Hagar, they needed to join force and protect their children from the mistake of marrying when they had neither the money nor the capacity to take care of themselves (Laurence, 1998)). However, the reality is that neither of the women wanted to lose an only child to someone else through the marriage. The two ladies meet for the first time in many years and Hagar attempts to remind Lottie of their past. However, Lottie has no recollection of all the incidents that Hagar is trying to remind her. Hagar even sly insults her by stating that her daughter looks nothing like her. The inability of Lottie to recollect anything may be a product of the fact that she had created her own world which helped her to stay oblivious to the unfair way the other kids treated her. Therefore, whereas Hagar may have though they had something in common, Lottie did not feel the same way.
In their new formed alliance, they sly come up with a way of separating their children. They make arrangement for Arlene to go work far away from Manawaka. The move would not only get Arlene to leave Manawaka, but it would also take her far away from John, Hagar’s son. Their relationship at this stage is a coalition for the attainment of their individual desires, and they thus do not take into account the emotions of the young lovers. However, the fact that Hager feels that she need Lottie to achieve this objective marks an enormous transition in their relationship. Regards, Hagar seems only to perceive Lottie as a means to an end. She indicates this when she notes “Lottie was the last person I’d have once thought of as an ally, but neither of us had any choice in the matter” (Laurence, 1998). She still despises Lottie and even note that she was yet to learn to differentiate trash from valuable things. Although the social status that Hagar used to enjoy no longer exists while Lottie social status has risen, Hagar still considers her partner socially inferior, and thus her subordinate. Furthermore, Hagar openly confesses her negative attitude towards Lottie (Laurence, 1998). She states that she felt surly towards Lottie’s tininess and her fine and pale hair because she admired her looks.
Their relationship took a different turn following the death or their children. The two women confront each other and the sham friendship they shared as their alliance lasted collapses. Between the two Hagar married poorly, while Lottie married wisely. Hagar chose a farmer for a husband. Uneducated, the farmer failed to prosper, and Hagar has to work as a house help far away from Manawaka. She remains contemptuous of Lottie who married a successful banker that transformed her social status. Apparently, Lottie is fully aware of her compatriot’s contempt, and it is likely the main reason that she agreed on the plot to separate their children. Certainly, she would not be comfortable to have her daughter married to someone who despises her. This is clearly a sign that Lottie gave their fake friendship as much importance as Hagar did. It was a mean to an end. In the end, it is apparent the Lottie might be as despising ad Hagar. Although she pretended not to remember the past she had had with Hagar, she remembered everything. Given her new social status, acting like she could remember the past was the best way she could keep her pride against Hagar. With her current state, she did not need to create how own world of aloofness to avoid the pain of being tormented by labels such as No-Name, or the sadness of missing out on party invitations. She would not have her daughter married to the son of her tormenter. In the end, the Tone Angel dismissed Hagar as her town people coined a new name for her as “the egg women.”
The two women’s relationship was sour from the start. It started off with name calling and ridicule and proceeded to a relationship fueled by hate and envy. The two stayed on different paths and were only brought together by the romance and marriage plans of their children. They united and became allies to separate their children, or to put it more plainly, to keep their families apart and keep their pride intact. Although they manage to keep their families apart, they lost their children in the process and their sham alliances collapses after having brought them misery. In the long run, it is Hagar that finds herself alone since Lottie now has a husband who is there for her and consoles her.
References
Laurence, M. (1998). The stone Angel . Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
