Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy is an account of a woman's transformation from victim and victimizer to giver and penitent. There seems to have always been at least a touch of good in Lise, something the nuns could work with, yet Vivi seems to have no such redeeming aspect. Contrasting the two characters could get at the heart of the novel by suggesting what makes one person redeemable and another not.

The evil deeds of the novel contrast starkly with the quiet, heart-tugging moments of the nuns' good works. This could make the novel seem to wander, as if unsure of what it is supposed to be. Is it a novel of redemption? Is it a novel of how even great good cannot stop the predations of great evil? This very uncertainty creates much of the plot's tension, and it adds depth to Godden's account...