By the end, Verity realizes her decades-long pursuit of the violin was misguided. What does the novel say about revenge and obsession? Can you sympathize with her motivations?
People get caught up in what they see as an injustice. While I sympathize with Verity’s childhood, she chose to let it define her. Spending her life searching for the violin that she could barely play seems ridiculous.
When the violin turned to dust in Verity’s hands, Devlin recognized that You can’t change the past. He thought he had to “accept it, and learn to make peace with it”. I think some people can’t let go of the past and can’t move on. Verity was a perfect example of someone who was stuck in the past. Maybe she found it comfortable. It was certainly easier than letting it go and moving forward.