Romantic

Character Role Analysis

Laura Rose Wilding

Laura Rose Wilding is an intriguing presence in the novel. The love affair she has with Janet is important to them both, but whereas Janet thinks of Laura as a comfort and friend in a strange new world, Laura thinks of Janet as her first real love. Laura's significance as a romantic interest stretches beyond her relationship with Janet, though, because in the novel's final chapter, we learn that Joanna's first lesbian relationship was with her best friend Laura. Just as the lines between Joanna the character, the omniscient narrator, and the "spirit of the author" are blurry, the boundaries that distinguish Laura Rose Wilding from this other "Laura" are extraordinarily permeable too.