# Lavinia Whateley — Short Fiction character guide

> Lavinia Whateley in Short Fiction by H. P. Lovecraft.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Lavinia, Lavinny

**First appearance:** 0051-the-dunwich-horror

## Snapshot

An albino recluse on the Dunwich hillside, mother to Wilbur, whispered about for the queer child and the queerer father.

## Who they are

Lavinia lives with her father Old Whateley in a decaying farmhouse above Dunwich, tolerated and avoided by neighbors who remember her wild youth. She is tied to Wilbur by something more than motherhood, and her presence in the story is a quiet dread beneath the louder horrors of the farm. What she knows about her son's parentage and the rites on Sentinel Hill makes her the human hinge on which Dunwich's ruin turns.

## In the story

### [The Birth and Early Years of Wilbur Whateley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/ii)

Albino mother of Wilbur, aged 35; deformed, superstitious, and proud of her son; wanders the hills and reads old occult books.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/iii)

Wilbur's mother, often found alone on the ground floor while strange noises come from the boarded-up second story; shows fear when the locked stairway door is tested.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/iv)

The twisted albino daughter; complains of fear of Wilbur; disappears after Halloween 1926.

### [The Climax on Sentinel Hill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/chapters/x)

Mentioned as the mother of the entity and Wilbur, referenced in old Zebulon Whateley's rambling.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/characters/lavinia_whateley
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_26_se/characters