Elizabeth has suffered many heartaches. These heartaches, more than the joy in her life, have shaped who she is. First, she is taken from her loving father by her maternal aunt after Elizabeth's mother died. Then her lover — and the father of her unborn child — kills himself. The final calamity in Elizabeth's life is her marriage to Gabriel, an abusive and controlling husband and father.
Elizabeth's father was an open, loving man who cherished his daughter and delighted in her company. Elizabeth's view of her father may not have been the clearest view of him (he, for example, ran a house of prostitution); nevertheless, it is her perception of him that is important. With him, for example, she "pranced and postured like a very queen: and she was not afraid of anything." Elizabeth's aunt, who removed Elizabeth from her father's house, although she may have been justified in her actions, earned Elizabeth's undying hate for having done so. In addition, there is some evidence that the aunt was, at least occasionally, emotionally cruel to Elizabeth, castigating Elizabeth for her pride.
Elizabeth's relationship with Richard was also a loving relationship and one that resulted in her pregnancy. For Richard, Elizabeth acted as a sort of emotional buoy. Even though their marriage was somewhere in the indefinite future and Elizabeth was not comfortable with Richard's godless ways (he drank, for example), "She did not leave him, because, she was afraid of what might happen to him without her. She did not resist him, because he needed her." Still, in the end she was powerless to save him from false accusations and police brutality that brought about his suicide.
