At the beginning of The Death of Mrs. Westaway, Hal is lonely and dispossessed. She drifts through life, struggling with her financial debt and her mother’s death. Though she spends her days telling people’s fortunes, she feels powerless over the negative trajectory of her own life; she perpetually owes money to violent extortionists and can barely afford to eat. However, the depth of her misery yields the desperation that motivates her immorality—which thereafter drives the plot. Hal’s deceptive scheme comes not from greed, but from despair. She is alone in a harrowing situation, and her fraud is a pure survival tactic.

The pain of loss, whether past or anticipated, plagues Hal throughout the novel. Her loneliness is alleviated when she arrives at Trepassen House and the Westaways greet her as a long-lost relative, but this warm welcome makes Hal feel guilty. She worries that her only remaining family will vanish once her lies are exposed. As she learns that she truly is related to the family, her guilt becomes a fear that they will realize she tried to scam them. At every juncture, Hal fears that her family will leave her. The suddenness of her mother’s death has left Hal with abandonment trauma; she expects anyone who loves or supports her to be forcibly taken from her.