Character Analysis
Making the Best of Things
Lizzie Rose, a girl who has been taken in by Grisini and plays music for his puppet show, has lived through some pretty awful things in her life. Both of her parents died, and she now lives in poverty, often going hungry because Grisini forgets to feed her.
The other kid that works in the puppet theater, Parsefall, isn't very nice to her, either, even though she treats him like he's her little brother. But, despite all of the hardship and pain that Lizzie Rose has gone through, she still tries to make the best of everything. Lizzie Rose has a moral compass and an unwavering sense of optimism that helps her to get through everything. She celebrates the small things in life, like Clara asking her to take tea or Mrs. Pinchbeck offering her some table scraps:
"Bread and dipping for breakfast!" announced Lizzie Rose. "I'll run downstairs and put the kettle on, and we'll have a feast." (9.43)
Something that might seem like a sad little breakfast to anyone else is considered a "feast" by Lizzie Rose. She's definitely a glass half full kind of person.
A Friend to All
Lizzie Rose is also kind to just about everyone—even Parsefall and Grisini. The first thing that Clara remembers about her is how Lizzie Rose smiled at her like a true friend, and this friendship is what shines through whenever Lizzie Rose meets someone. Even though Parsefall tries to annoy her all the time, Lizzie Rose doesn't waver in her treatment of him; she's always loving and patient:
One of the things that bothered him about Lizzie Rose was the way she was kind to him when he was doing his best to irritate her. He found it unnerving. (3.6)
She is so good and kind that when Cassandra reads her palm, it is one of the defining characteristics that she sees in the girl:
Then the old woman opened her eyes. "You're good," she said flatly. It was not a compliment but an accusation. "Gaspare lied. He said you were deceitful. You're good, God help you, and God help me. Horribly, inconveniently good." (36.60)
She realizes that Lizzie Rose is a good person who will always try to do the right thing, a girl who isn't anything like the manipulative minx that Grisini described. She really is as nice as she seems when you first meet her—and luckily, this works out for her in the end. She becomes the heir to Cassandra's fortune and is taken in by Clara's family, who end up loving her completely. Yay. This happy ending really couldn't have happened to a nicer character.