Vivian is misunderstood

Is that like Nina Simone misunderstood, the Animals misunderstood or Santa Esmeralda misunderstood??

I don't think Vivian was truly hateful. She was very insecure about her relationship with Warner. Lots of girls get a bit catty when their boyfriend's ex is around. And she had a bit of a reason to dislike Elle at first. When Elle initially got to Harvard, she was trying to get Warner back. Of course, Vivian wouldn't want Elle hanging around them. Then she saw Elle's true character and Warner's true character and realized that Elle was a very good person. That said, I don't think Warner was a bad guy or anything. He was a bit selfish and self-centered but not a horrible person.

I don't know that I'd say she was misunderstood so much as she was, like many people, situationally bad. That is to say, she was probably a perfectly nice person to anyone in her own world, but a total bitch to anyone outside of it whom she decided she didn't respect. It's amazing how many people think it's perfectly okay not to show even a basic level of courtesy below which they won't go.

Elle had just left her insular rich world on the West Coast to visit an equally rich, insular and very close-minded world on the East Coast. Vivian was still *in* her own world. Elle had left her comfort zone; Vivian was secure within her own. It therefore took her a much longer time to show the growth that Elle did, especially since she started at such a low point.

Of course, in Vivian's defense, it was a bit stalkery for Elle to follow her ex all the way to Harvard (though many people have done this and ended up staying for the education, forgetting about the ex). On the other hand, Elle didn't do anything that would make it "okay" for Vivian to act the way she did, either. Vivian also seemed a bit naive about men in the sense that she didn't think through too hard what Elle's existence said about the West Coast guy she'd known for all of a few weeks before he proposed.

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