Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

Mrs. Bertha Dorset

Bertha is a dangerous woman. She likes making other people miserable, she connives for power, she cheats on her husband, and she sacrifices Lily's reputation to cover her own scandal. She constantly antagonizes Miss Bart, from the scene on the train to Bellomont to her rivalry for Selden to the way she poisons Lily's chances of marrying Gryce. Even at the end of the novel, when Lily is completely ruined, Bertha has to twist the knife by turning even the Gormers against her.