Compassion is the key to morality, and those who possess this quality are people of a caring and genuine nature. Margaret Laurence's character, Hagar Shipley, is someone to whom compassion is foreign. She lives a life obsessed with her public image and appearances, an obsession that leaves her bereft of true humanity. In The Stone Angel, Hagar Shipley lives a life blinded by her pride, ignorant of real emotions and feelings; it is only through penance and atonement is she able to find inner peace and personal salvation. Accomplish
             The stone angel is the central image in the novel, and one that represents the main character as being "doubly blind" (3). Hagar allowed her pride in herself, her social position and her family to control her self-image, making her cold to the needs of the heart. As a child Hagar will not subject herself to anything below the standard that she set for herself. This is the sole reason for her refusal to pretend to be her dead mother in order save her brother Dan, "[t]o play at being her...was beyond me." (25). Hagar is unable to give the comforting love of which Dan was in desperate need. She is unable to reduce herself to acting as something she is not, to show compassion or tender emotion is impossible for Hagar as a young person. She holds herself in high esteem and will not, in her opinion, belittle herself in front of others. Hagar is unable to clearly communicate her emotions. She has a tendency to suppress her feelings, similar to the stone angel that evidently has a "stone heart" (4). Hagar will not allow anyone to see her upset. After an argument in which her father has crushed Hagar's feelings she refuses to "let him see [her] cry."(9). Hagar appears to be made of stone; sharing her father's pride, she does not allow herself to express emotions that might be thought of as weak. Clearly as a young child she is disciplined with her emotions, careful of who is around to see her fragility. Hagar's ...