The society that is currently lived in is one that is filled with the idea that the way a person acts, or looks can determine whom one will become friends with, and where one's life will lead that person in the future. Although it is unfair that a single person's fate can be determined by these factors, most people do not believe that everyone should be judged this way. The reason that our society has become the way that it is today is due to those few stragglers who inflict on the rest unnecessary harshness, and unfair rules. A great example of one of these people is Mrs. Hagar Shipley from the novel The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence. At first Mrs. Hagar Shipley seemed to be the normal ninety year old women, but after closer inspection it was soon discovered that she was not. Mrs. Shipley has a problem that totally consumes her life; she is preoccupied with appearances.
             Being concerned about one's appearance, or for that matter other people's appearances is not wrong, as long as it is not taken to the extreme, like Mrs. Shipley did. This preoccupation with appearances causes Mrs. Hagar Shipley to become a tragic character. A tragic character is a person, or group of people who have a major character flaw(s) that lead to their unhappiness and/or death. In the case of Hagar Shipley her major character flaw is her preoccupation with appearances. Hagar is worried that the way her family acts will reflect poorly upon her, which causes her to become overbearing, and distant. Also, Hagar does not want to appear weak, so she does not show any of her feelings to anyone. Finally, the fact that Hagar cannot accept that she is growing older, and will soon die allows her to do things that cause her or other people undue suffering, thus causing her downfall.
             One of the many reasons Hagar became a tragic character was due to the fact that she was concerned that the way her family acted reflected poorly upon her. The earliest incident of ...