The lady is an unnamed protagonist who seeks the assistance of the old woman to learn the fate of family members that she has left behind. Plagued with shame and guilt, the lady spends the story in paroxysms of fear as she learns the fate of each person she has deserted. She asks the old woman to help her because she can no longer stand not knowing; the only thing stronger than her shame is her need to know the truth about her family. Having been married to a Puritan minister, the lady is intimately acquainted with the destructive power of shame. Instead of mourning their daughter’s absence or inquiring about her welfare, they instead focus on the dishonor she has brought to them. Being in the same environment in her marriage has further created a sense of anxiety around shame. She is described as being beautiful but “pale and troubled, and smitten with an untimely blight in what should have been the fullest bloom of her years” (Paragraph 1). Her wan appearance could be a result of her guilt or of the unnamed illness she is experiencing. It is unclear if the “untimely blight” is what has led her to seek out the counsel of the old woman, but the timing of her death shows that regardless of her illness, her shame and the pain of her child’s death also contributed to her death.