Justice Versus Vengeance

The distinction between justice and vengeance is blurred in the final section of the novel as the heroine perhaps oversteps herself and becomes, in her quest for vengeance, a villain in her own right. Throughout the first part of the novel, Amber is seemingly the protagonist of the novel, in large part because the third-person-point-of-view sticks close to her. While she certainly has her faults, she is presented as an ambitious and intelligent woman who goes after what she wants. Though the reader never roots for her because her goals and plans are so nefarious and her character is so unlikable, the very structure of the novel has the reader invested in her plan to marry Jackson. Aside from plotting to steal Daphne’s life, Amber is cruel to children, she drugs innocent old ladies who get in her way, and she does not...