The name Lucy is used so much in literary fiction, particularly for virginal and pure characters. Some examples would be Lucy Pevensie of The Chronicles of Narnia series and Lucie Manette of A Tale of Two Cities. Tragedy seems to surround these females. I find it fascinating that this name is such a safe bet for girl characters.
After reading "Lucy Gray," it's occurred to me that Lucy is on a journey. The journey being her life. When the storm comes before it's supposed to, it really symbolizes a surprise ending to a short life. The responsibility of having to go out into the storm to help her mother turns out to be too much for Lucy. Her father is forcing her to grow up to fast, and she becomes lost. People should be able to grow at a healthy pace, like plants. When her foot prints end, and her parents find her by the bridge, she is no longer their little girl (the foot prints having represented her youngness). She has graduated into a state of being that her parents will never know. Lucy's death causes her to form a oneness with nature that she probably longed for before but was denied because of her parents.
Wordsworth got the idea for "Lucy Gray" from a story his sister once told him. Spiritualizing the character helps the girl live on in our minds. If the poem had ended with death, and no afterlife, it would not have been as haunting.
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