Betsy and Felicity
BETSY
Betsy is inspired by a real-life lady I worked with. Her personality is manifested by this real person, but her purpose in the show is all made up. She's this spunky older lady who has this gentle presence but is also so fun and full of life. In the play, she owns a flower shop and is often tending to the flowers while giving some explanation on how they need to be taken care of. When she talks about the flowers, she often makes metaphors that could be applied to humans, this is of course no accident.
At the very end of the show, she finally meets Lily and gives her an actual lily to take with her without telling her what kind it is. Her intention with this could be purely kindness and playful, but in my mind, her actions don't go to waste. This flower is a reminder to Lily that she needs to take care of herself no matter what state she's in as she goes through life. Lily might not understand that metaphor when she's given the lily, but I can promise you that there's an endless amount of possibilities for Lily's future that are affected by this one action by a lady she doesn't even know.
In my mind, I see Betsy as this representation of Lily in the future. Not that she's actually Lily, but she's where Lily will be one day, at peace. Betsy, despite not giving us her backstory, clearly has a deep understanding of emotions and trauma. We see this through the metaphors she gives the audience and we can only assume she's been through her own battles but has overcome them. She sees someone like Lily as a reflection of where she used to be and Lily even says, "I know I don't know you-" but she isn't able to finish her sentence. What could she have been trying to say if she wasn't interrupted? I'll allow for you to make your own interpretations on that, but just trust that this one encounter in Lily's life is not one that she forgets for the rest of her life.
FELICITY
To start off, Felicity isn't real. They're not a real-life person and are not a real physical person in the play despite appearing that way in the show. In reality, they're Lily's mind, well at least one side of her mind. They are this manifestation of who Lily used to be, which before, based on Lily's words, was a positive person through and through. Hence, the name Felicity means joy. There are cues to this throughout the script, but as an audience member, you may not pick up on them unless you are mainly focusing on them. Some cues are Felicity already knowing what Lily is going to say, being in sync with her, or even recalling that Lily never once uses a name for them. There's also the fact that they are the only person that Lily confides in, but yet we see no progression in Lily's mental state. At first glance, they seem like a therapist, and in reality, that's probably what they are to Lily. It's Lily's excuse for saying she has help, but she's a bit far gone at this point and this is her way of saying she's giving up.
Felicity in a sense is a metaphor. They're the part of Lily that secretly wants to live and is fighting to keep her alive. Felicity is constantly trying to remind Lily of who she not only was but is still. They have hope that they can convince her to continue living, but there's also no amount of doubt in Felicity either. They don't waver in their optimism and confidence in saving Lily. The reasoning for that simply is that Felicity isn't capable of that and if they were for example to show an ounce of doubt, that could be what pushes Lily over the edge and finally commits to ending her own life. Lily says numerous times she's afraid of hurting others and how that thought is one of the only things keeping her going. Felicity could be responsible for this, except the manifestation of this thought is through love in their mind. It's quite literally this voice reminding her that she is loved and loves others, so she can't die just yet. However, with Lily's mental state, she takes this as a fear of hurting others rather than seeing the love within that. It's all about perception and these two clearly are in sync, but come out with different understandings of what their current situation is or could be.