YMMV / The Monastery

• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The White Lady's whole role is this to the Waverley Novels in general. Scott often uses the supernatural in his poetry and Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane in his prose, but she's the only explicitly supernatural character in any of his novels, and never feels as if she really fits in. The doggerel verse she speaks in doesn't help. Critics at the time hated her, and it's not hard to see why.
• Designated Love Interest: Halbert for Mary. They barely interact, and she has far more in common with Edward.
• The Scrappy: Sir Piercie's pompous long-windedness is supposed to be annoying, but probably not as annoying as many readers from 1820 to now have found it. (Scott defended it as an accurate portrait of a Euphuist - but a defence of accuracy will hardly stand given that Euphuism in 1559 is itself an anachronism!)

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