# Mistress Betty — Short Fiction character guide

> Mistress Betty in Short Fiction by Thomas Hardy.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Betty, Dear Betty, Miss Betty

**First appearance:** 0002-destiny-and-a-blue-cloak

## Snapshot

A young woman whose love affair turns precarious, she leans on her mistress's pen and judgment to keep an absent suitor's tenderness alive.

## Who they are

Betty — called Anna in the letters she cannot write herself — is a servant whose romance with the traveling Raye has left her pregnant and dependent on her mistress Edith Harnham's counsel. Her own feelings chafe against the generous, self-effacing phrases Edith composes in her name, yet she acquiesces, wanting only the 'niceness' she cannot manufacture alone. Her helplessness exposes the strange intimacy and quiet rivalry between the two women who both love the same man.

## Relationships

### [Squire Dornell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters/squire_dornell)

_family_

Mistress Betty and Squire Dornell are husband and wife, with a dynamic of mutual dependence and conflict.

### [Lizzy Newberry](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters/lizzy_newberry)

_friendship_

Lizzy and Mistress Betty are close friends and confidantes, sharing secrets and supporting each other.

### [Stephen Reynard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters/stephen_reynard)

_romantic_

Mistress Betty and Stephen Reynard are lovers, their affair causing scandal and emotional turmoil.

### [Squire Dornell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters/squire_dornell)

_family_

Mistress Betty and Squire Dornell are husband and wife, with a dynamic of mutual dependence and conflict.

### [Lizzy Newberry](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters/lizzy_newberry)

_friendship_

Lizzy and Mistress Betty are close friends and confidantes, sharing secrets and supporting each other.

### [Stephen Reynard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters/stephen_reynard)

_romantic_

Mistress Betty and Stephen Reynard are lovers, their affair causing scandal and emotional turmoil.

### [Lizzy Newberry](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters/lizzy_newberry)

_friendship_

Lizzy and Mistress Betty are close friends and confidantes, sharing secrets and supporting each other.

### [Squire Dornell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters/squire_dornell)

_family_

Mistress Betty and Squire Dornell are husband and wife, with a dynamic of mutual dependence and conflict.

## In the story

### [III: The Mysterious Greatcoat](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/iii-the-mysterious-greatcoat)

Lizzy's mother, who dismisses Stockdale's concerns about Lizzy's absence from her room.

### [XVII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/xvii)

Not present in this chapter.

### [Dame the First](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/chapters/dame-the-first)

Betty deliberately exposes herself to smallpox to avoid her husband Stephen Reynard, then later flees with her lover Phelipson.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters/mistress_betty
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_53_se/characters