Collins does not approach blindness from an idealized or sentimental perspective, but as it truly is in reality. Every time the protagonist, the unfortunate Miss Finch, speaks or acts and refers to her blindness, she does so in a way that reflects the genuine experience of those suffering from the same affliction. The author wholeheartedly supports "that article of faith" which asserts that the conditions for human happiness are independent of physical misfortunes, and even argues that physical hardships may, in themselves, be ingredients of happiness. This is the impression he hopes to leave in the reader’s mind when they close the book at the end. This "revelation" is heightened by the narrator: a French revolutionary dedicated to the "sacred duty of overthrowing tyrants." After failing in that mission, her search for employment leads her to work in the home of an Anglican clergyman in a remote English village, where she becomes the companion to the poor Miss Finch. All very Collinsian.