Lydia Character Analysis in A Prayer for Owen Meany

The Wheelwrights’ former cook and housekeeper. After Lydia has her leg amputated due to cancer, Harriet hires two other maids, Ethel and Germaine, to care for her and Lydia. The family takes care of Lydia for the rest of her life, treating her as one of their own, and she always imitates the dignified Harriet Wheelwright. She develops dementia and dies at home on Christmas Eve while Owen Meany is performing in The Christmas Carol.

Lydia Character Timeline in A Prayer for Owen Meany

The timeline below shows where the character Lydia appears in A Prayer for Owen Meany. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

John explains that Harriet, while snobbish, was also generous and noble. When her longtime maid, Lydia, had to have her leg amputated for a tumor, Harriet replaced her with two maids—one... (full context)

The Wheelwrights and Lydia were eating dinner one evening after Tabitha returned from her weekly overnight stay in Boston... (full context)

...that he awoke the household and the whole neighborhood. Harriet cried out in response, and Lydia shrieked in pain from leaping out of bed and crashing into her dresser. Owen would... (full context)

The maid who replaces Lydia is named Ethel. Ethel is a robust, strong worker, but she in’t very bright or... (full context)

...they won’t grieve Tabitha’s absence. Harriet almost refuses to join them at the show, since Lydia is sick and she doesn’t want to leave her alone with only Germaine for company.... (full context)

...John hears Germaine whispering in the secret passageway, praying to herself. Germaine tells him that Lydia died in her bed while Germaine was reading to her. While Germaine was sitting with... (full context)

Harriet imagines that Owen had somehow foreseen Lydia’s death and mistaken it for his own. Germaine agrees, saying that she and Lydia thought... (full context)

...of lust are pointing him in the right direction. He argues that it was not Lydia’s death he saw a premonition of—it was his own gravestone, with his real name on... (full context)

...hastening the deaths of the elderly. She finally gets a TV after Tabitha and then Lydia die. Without Lydia to take care of, Germaine soon resigns. (full context)