Old Jenny

Old Jenny is the household's faithful servant, a woman whose kindness and religious certainty form part of the texture of Mary's childhood. Long after her death, her voice returns in memory — praising the remarkable child, wailing over unbelief — as one of the many voices Mary must sort through to find her own. She matters because she embodies the uneducated, unquestioning devotion the Olivier women are expected to give, and because Mary's inability to simply believe as Jenny did is one of the earliest signs of who she will become.