Main Characters
Odysse: Homer
Odysseus: The central figure in the epic, he employs guile as well as courage to
return to Ithaca, defeat the suitors, and resume his proper place as king.
Penelope: Wife of Odysseus and mother of their son, Telemachus, she is shrewd and
faithful in fending off the suitors.
Telemachus: Son of Odysseus and Penelope, the prince struggles to gain his own
maturity while attempting to deal with the problems of the palace.
Laertes: Odysseus’ father, the old king lives humbly and in solitude on a small farm
where he mourns the absence of his son; once reunited with Odysseus, he is restored
to dignity.
Anticleia: Odysseus’ mother, she dies grieving her son’s long absence and sees him
only during his visit to the Land of the Dead.
Eurycleia: Faithful old nurse to Odysseus (as well as Telemachus), she identifies her
master when she recognizes an old scar on his leg.
Eumaeus and Philoetius: Odysseus’ loyal swineherd and cowherd, they assist him
in his return to Ithaca and stand with the king and prince against the suitors.
Argos: Trained by Odysseus some twenty years before, the discarded old dog, dying
on a dung heap, recognizes his master as Odysseus and Eumaeus approach the palace.
Antinous and Eurymachus: The two leading suitors, they differ in that Antinous is
more physically aggressive while Eurymachus is a smooth talker.
Eupithes: Father of Antinous, he leads the suitors’ families and friends who seek
revenge for the slaughter and is killed by Laertes.
Melanthius and Melantho: Odysseus’ disloyal goatherd and an insolent palace
maidservant, these two are representative of those who serve their master poorly, and
each is rewarded with a grisly death.
Agamemnon: King of Mycenae and commander of the Greek expedition to Troy, he
was assassinated by his wife and her lover upon his return home. Homer frequently
refers to him, comparing Penelope favorably to Agamemnon’s wife, Clytemnestra.
Odysseus sees him in the Land of the Dead.
Tiresias: The blind seer of Thebes, he meets Odysseus in the Land of the Dead,
warns him of impending dangers, offers advice, and foretells a later quest and a long
life.
Alcinous: King of the Phaeacians, he encourages Odysseus to tell the story of his
wanderings and helps the hero return to Ithaca.
Nausicaa: Daughter of Alcinous and Queen Arete, she finds Odysseus when he
washes ashore on Phaeacia and expresses an attraction toward him.
Zeus: King of the gods, he is somewhat unpredictable but usually supports
wayfaring suppliants, hospitality, and his daughter Athena in her concern for
Odysseus.
Athena: Sometimes called “Pallas Athena” or “Pallas,” she frequently intervenes on
Odysseus’ or Telemachus’ behalf, often in disguise and sometimes as Mentor, the
prince’s adviser.
Polyphemus: Also known as “the Cyclops,” the one-eyed cannibal giant who traps
Odysseus and a scouting party in his cave and is blinded when they escape.
Poseidon: God of the sea and father of Polyphemus, he seeks revenge on Odysseus
for blinding his son.
Calypso: A goddess-nymph, she holds Odysseus captive for seven years, sleeping
with him, hoping to marry him, and releasing him only at Zeus’ order.
Circe: A goddess-enchantress who turns some of Odysseus’ crew into swine, she
reverses the spell and becomes Odysseus’ lover for a year, advising him well when
he departs.
Aeolus: Master of the winds, he helps Odysseus get within viewing distance of
Ithaca but later abandons the voyager, concluding that anyone so unlucky must be
cursed.
Heliodorus, Aethiopica
Chariclea, the daughter of King Hydaspes and Queen Persinna of Ethiopia
Sisimithras, a gymnosophist, who carries her to Egypt and places her in charge of
Charicles, a Pythian priest
Theagenes, a noble Thessalian, comes to Delphi and the two fall in love with each other
Calasiris, an Egyptian, employed by Persinna to seek for her daughter
Lancelot: Chretien de Troyes
Lancelot – knight of the cart
Meleagant – abductor of Queen Guinevere
King Arthur – King (of Camelot, rather weak character here)
Guinevere – Arthur’s wife, adulteress (with Lancelot)
Sir Kay – Knight from Arthur’s court, fails in rescuing Guinevere
Mysterious five ladies – imposes obstacles in the course of L’s quest to save Guinever
Don Quixote: Cervantes
Alonso Quixano—A fifty-year-old hidalgo, the lowest level of gentry, of La Mancha
in rural Spain, he has long since given up running his modest estate and has begun
selling off some of his property in order to buy books. These books all relate to
chivalry, a subject that is about to drive Quixano over the edge of reason, where he
will take on the name of Don Quixote de la Mancha. A spavined dray and hack
horse , Rosinante, becomes his steed.
Sancho Panza—A local laborer who is enlisted to serve the newly dubbed knight,
lured principally by the promise of his own island to govern. His primary means of
transportation is an ornery mule, Dapple.
Teresa—Panza’s wife, who runs the household and cares for the couple’s two
children while Sancho is off in his chivalric pursuits with Quixote.
Aldonza Lorenza—A young country girl who barely knows Don Quixote, she
nevertheless becomes the newly dubbed knight’s womanly ideal.
John Haldudo, the Rich—The rich man who, in Quixote’s first knightly adventure,
is castigated by Quixote for beating his servant-boy.
Andrew—A young apprentice whom Quixote attempts to help, in the process
causing more trouble.
Antonia—Quixote’s loving niece, who is conflicted by her desire to keep her uncle
safely at home and her wish for the old gentleman to enjoy himself at his new
preoccupation.
Muñaton—A scholar whom Antonia accuses of stealing Quixote’s library
Samson Carrasco—A young student from Quixote’s village. He believes that by
providing Quixote with adventures, he will make the “knight” tire of chivalric
pursuits. Carrasco is a key character; he appears in many guises, especially as
knights-at-arms, and finally is the cause of Quixote’s return home.
The Duke and Duchess—A pair of decadent, high-ranking nobles who become
amused by Quixote and Panza, orchestrating lavish and complex pranks as a source
of amusement. They are frequent causes of pain and humiliation for the pair from La
Mancha.
Cid Hamet Benegali—The Arab translator of Don Quixote. Appearing as a satiric
character, he is constantly being accused of dishonesty by Cervantes in authorial
asides.
Cardenio (“The Ragged Knight of the Sorry Countenance”)—A young man
whose heart is broken when his lover, Lucinda, marries Don Fernando. He and
Dorothea apprehend Don Fernando at the inn, late in Book I. Cardenio ends up with
Lucinda in the end.
The priest—A good friend of Quixote, who tries to be supportive but who also
engages in plans with other of Quixote’s friends, notably the barber, to bring Quixote
to his senses.
The barber—Another friend, interested in Quixote’s well being.
A barber—Not Quixote’s barber friend. “A man on horseback, who had on his head
something which glittered, as if it had been of gold,” he is, in fact, wearing a basin
on his head because it is raining. Quixote attacks this barber and steals the basin,
believing it to be “the helmet of Mambrino.”
Dorothea (“The Princess Micomicona”)—A woman who has been deceived by a
man, Don Fernando, who promised to marry her, but married Lucinda instead.
Disgraced, Dorothea leaves her village disguised in men’s clothing. She conspires
with Cardenio to hunt down Don Fernando, and she also helps the priest and barber
bring Don Quixote home. She pretends to be the Princess Micomicona, winning
Quixote’s promise to slay a giant so that she might regain her kingdom. With the
Princess’s help, the priest is able to get Quixote under his control.
Tinacrio the Wise and Queen Xaramilla—Father and mother of the Princess
Micomicona.
Lucinda—The woman Cardenio hoped to marry. She instead marries Cardenio’s
friend, Don Fernando, who is the son of a Duke. Lucinda marries Don Fernando to
appease her parents but she truly loves Cardenio. Lucinda and Cardenio are reunited
late in Book I.
Don Fernando—Betrays his friend, Cardenio, by marrying Cardenio’s lover,
Lucinda. Don Fernando has also taken Dorothea’s virginity, only to break his
promise to marry her.
Innkeeper #1—He performs the dubbing ceremony n which Quixote is given his
knightly name.
Innkeeper #2—An innkeeper whom Quixote patronizes in Chapter 16 and again in
Chapter 32. Quixote believes that his inn is a castle and that Innkeeper #2 is the lord
of the castle.
Innkeeper #2’s daughter—A beautiful young woman whom Quixote takes for a
princess. At length, he convinces himself that she is romantically interested in him.
Maritornes—A nearly blind, hunchbacked woman who works at Inn #2.
Friston—The “sage enchanter” who figures as Quixote’s arch-nemesis. Quixote
accuses Friston of stealing his library and robbing him of a victory by transforming
giants into windmills just as Quixote was on the verge of victory against them.
Marcella—A beautiful young shepherdess who comes from a wealthy family. She
refuses to be married or courted and lives in the wild, hoping to avoid the advances
of men.
Galley slaves—A chain-gang of violent criminals, are on their way to being
executed. Quixote sees them as helpless victims and helps them escape. When Don
Quixote suggests that the galley slaves present themselves to Dulcinea, the criminals
beat the knight merciless and then escape in different directions.
Gines de Pasamonte—One of the most violently ungrateful of the galley slaves, he
steals Panza’s mule, Dapple, in the Sierra Morena.
Holy Brotherhood Officer #2—An officer who intends to arrest Quixote for
“setting at liberty” a group of “galley-slaves.” The priest dissuades the officer on
account of Quixote’s insanity.
The canon—A religious figure who once tried his hand at writing a tale of chivalry,
though he now condemns this literary art form. After discussing literature with
Quixote, the canon marvels at the knight’s easy ramblings between lucid
intellectualism and ridiculous foolishness.
Lazarillo de Tormes(The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Fortunes and Adversities):
Anonymous
The Sixteenth Century Salamanca town crier, Lázaro
His mother, widow of a Spanish soldier and common-law wife of a Moor thief
"The blind man," "the squire," "the pardoner": three of his masters
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe The narrator of the story. Crusoe sets sail at nineteen years of
age, despite his father’s demand that he stay at home and be content with his “middle
station” in life. Crusoe eventually establishes a farm in Brazil and realizes he is
living the life his father planned for him, but he is half a world away from England.
Crusoe agrees to sail to the Guinea Coast to trade for slaves, but when a terrible
storm blows up, he is marooned on an island, alone. He spends 35 years there, and
his time on the island forms the basis of the novel.
Captain’s Widow The wife of the first captain to take young Crusoe under his
wing. Crusoe leaves his savings with the widow, who looks after his money with
great care. Crusoe sees her again after he leaves the island and returns to England;
she encourages him to settle in England.
Xury A servant on the ship on which young Crusoe is a slave; Xury is loyal to
Crusoe when the two escape. Xury’s devotion to Crusoe foreshadows the role Friday
later plays, although young Crusoe later sells Xury back into slavery for a profit.
the Captain of the Ship The captain of the ship that rescues young Crusoe and
Xury; this man befriends young Crusoe and offers him money and guidance. They
reunite after Crusoe’s 35 years on the island.
Friday A “savage” whom Crusoe rescues from certain death at the hands of
cannibals. Friday is handsome, intelligent, brave, and loyal, none of which are
qualities usually associated with “savages.” He serves Crusoe faithfully throughout
his life.
Madame de Lafayette, The Princess of Cleves
Mademoiselle de Chartres is a sheltered heiress ("in her sixteenth year", i.e. aged 15)
whose mother has brought her to the court of Henri II (which is simply a disguised
version of the court of Louis XIV) to seek a husband with good prospects, financially and
in society
the Prince de Clèves – her suitor, husband
Duc de Nemours – dashing young suitor who loves her and is loved in return, but never
to be united
Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone (Dream of the Red Chamber): one volume
Chia Ching
Chia Tai-hua's son; father of Chia Chen and Hsi-chun. He gives up his noble title and
devotes the rest of his life to studying religion and taking elixirs every day, hoping to
become an immortal.
Chia Chen
Chia Ching's son; Madame Yu's husband. His son Chia Jung is married to Chin Ko ching. Chia is a dissipated person and has an illicit relationship with his daughter-inlaw.
Hsi-chun (Compassion Spring)
Chia Cling's daughter. She is on good terms with the nun Miao-yu and is planning on
becoming a nun herself.
Chia Jung
Chia Chen's son. His father buys him a position as an officer of the fifth rank in the
Imperial Guard. Chia Jung is also a dissolute person, dallying with beautiful girls
whenever he can.
Chin Ko-ching
Chia Jung's wife; she comes from a poor scholar's family. Her brother Chin Chung is
a good friend of Pao-yu.
Lady Dowager (the Matriarch)
Daughter of Marquis Shih of Chinling; wife of Chia Tai-shan, who has been dead for
many years. She has two sons, Chia Sheh and Chia Cheng, and a daughter, Chia Min.
She is so attached to her grandsons and granddaughters that she makes them study in
the Jung Mansion so that she can be near them.
Chia Sheh
Son of Lady Dowager. After the death of his father, he inherits the title of Duke of
Jungkuo. He is a lecher who fancies beautiful girls and bullies weaklings. He is
arrested, but is released because of the Emperor's amnesty.
Lady Hsing
Chia Sheh's wife. Her dissatisfaction and jealousy cause her to urge Lady Wang to
declare that a search be made throughout the Grand View Garden.
Chia Lien
Chia Sheh's son; Wang Hsi-feng 's husband. Like others, he too is dissolute and
secretly marries Second Sister Yu so that she can be his concubine.
Wang Hsi-feng (Phoenix)
Chia Lien's wife; Lady Wang's niece. She is pretty, clever, and competent; she is also
talkative, greedy, and cunning. She runs the Chia household affairs expertly, but
sometimes uses her power and position to bully the weak. She dies a tragic death.
Chiao-chieh
Pretty daughter of Chia Lien and Wang Hsi-feng .
Chia Cheng
Younger son of Lady Dowager. Upon the death of his father, the Emperor gives him
the rank of Assistant Secretary; then he rises to the rank of Under Secretary in the
Board of Works. He is strict with his son, Pao-yu, hoping that Pao-yu will enhance
the family reputation.
Ying-chun (Welcome Spring)
Chia Sheh's daughter by a concubine. She is a lenient, weak girl and finally marries
the villain Sun Shaotsu.
Lady Chao
Chia Cheng's concubine. Her son, Chia Huan, hates Pao-yu and plots with his mother
to kill Pao-yu.
Chia Chu
Lady Wang's elder son. He passes the district examination at fourteen, marries before
he is twenty, and has a son, Chia Lan, but suddenly falls ill and dies, leaving a
widow, Li Wan.
Li Wan
Wife of Chia Cheng's late son Chia Chu. Her son Chia Lan finally passes the official
examination, along with Pao-yu. She takes no interest in the outside world, content
to wait on her elders and look after her son.
Yuan-chun
Chia Cheng's daughter. Her name is symbolic of the fact that she was born on the
first day of the year. While she is still a young woman, she is chosen as the Imperial
concubine, and the Grand View Garden is built for the purpose of her first royal visit
home.
Chia Pao-yu
Chia Cheng's son; he came into the world with a piece of clear, brilliantly colored
jade in his mouth. He is strongly attached to the girls in Grand View Garden. He isn't
interested in honors, advancement, or an official reputation. The feudal marriage
system prevents him from marrying Lin Tai-yu, the girl whom he loves most. In the
end, he goes away with a monk.
Hsueh Pao-chai (Precious Virtue)
Aunt Hsueh's daughter, Chia Pao-yu's wife. She is a filial daughter and a faithful
wife, a model of the feudal, ethical norm.
Tan-chun (Quest Spring)
Chia Cheng's daughter by the concubine Lady Chao. She is a competent, but
rebellious girl. She organizes a poetry club for the girls in Grand View Garden.
Lin Ju-hai
Lady Dowager's son-in-law; Lin Tai-yu's father.
Lin Tai-yu (Black Jade)
Lin Ju-hai's daughter, Lady Dowager's granddaughter. Upon her mother's death, Taiyu comes to live with the Chia family. She is a delicate and outstandingly intellectual
girl, although a bit sentimental. She loves Chia Pao-yu very much, but her delicate
health and sharp tongue keep her from being in favor with Lady Dowager and Lady
Wang. She dies for her ideal of love.
Chia Tai-ju
Principal of the Chia family clan school; Chia Jui's grandfather.
Chia Jui
Chia Tai-ju's grandson. He is an amorous person but meets his match when he tries
to flirt with Wang Hsi-feng . He dies because of one of Hsi-feng 's cunning tricks.
Shih Hsiang-yun (River Mist)
Lady Dowager's granddaughter; Pao-yu's cousin. She comes often to see Lady
Dowager and stays with the girls of the Chia family. She is pretty and talented.
Aunt Hsueh
Hsueh Pao-chai's mother, from the Wang family. She has one son, Hsueh Pan, a
good-for-nothing who kills two persons. He is arrested for the second murder but is
pardoned by an amnesty.
Hsia Chin-kuei
Daughter of a royal merchant; Hsueh Pan's wife. She is pretty but treac herous—a
shrew. She mistreats Hsueh Pan's concubine Hsiang-ling badly and, at one point,
plots to poison her, but poisons herself by mistake.
Hsiang-ling
Chen Shih-yin's daughter, Ying-lien (Lotus). She is kidnapped, then seized by Hsueh
Pan as his concubine; she marries him and dies in childbirth.
Pao-chan
Hsueh Pan's concubine. She plots with Hsia Chin-kuei to win Hsueh Ko's hand.
Hsueh Ko
Hsueh Pan's cousin—a kind, honest, and helpful person. He finally marries Hsiu-yen,
the daughter of Lady Hsing's brother and sister-in-law.
Hsiu-yen
A girl from a poor family, but an honest and sensible girl. She is betrothed to Hsueh
Ko, and, after marriage, they prove to be a happy couple.
Pao-chin
Hsueh Ko's sister. She is a talented girl and has traveled to many places with her
parents. She marries the son of Academician Mei.
Bailiff Wu
Bailiff of the manor in Black Mountain Village. He comes to pay taxes and rent in
kind to the Chia family every year.
Leng Tzu-hsing
Son-in-law of Mr. Chou Jui (the steward of the Chia family), a curio-dealer in a
village tavern. He does business with monied families.
Chen Shih-yin
He lives in the city of Kusu with his wife and daughter Ying-lien (Lotus). After his
daughter disappears and his house burns, he goes off with a Taoist monk to faraway
places and finally becomes a Taoist himself.
Chia Yu-tsun
A poor scholar, he is appointed as the prefect of Yingtian with the help of Chen
Shih-yin. He is an ungrateful person, seeking only fame and fortune. He is finally
reduced to an ordinary citizen.
Miao-yu
A nun from Iron Threshold Temple. An unconventional person, her eccentricity
makes her look down upon all vulgar people. Finally she is kidnapped and killed by
brigands.
Third Sister Yu
A past wanton, she is now reformed. Her failure to marry Liu Hsiang-lien causes her
to commit suicide with one of Liu's swords in front of him.
Second Sister Yu
Madame Yu's second sister. She marries Chia Lien as his concubine and is finally
driven to suicide by Hsi-feng .
Granny Liu
A peasant woman; mother-in-law of one of Lady Wang's remote clansmen. She is
simple, honest, and wise. She visits the Chia family three times, the first two times
for financial assistance. The extravagant life in the Chia Mansion is presented vividly
through her visits to the Chia family.
Liu Hsiang-lien
An orphaned son of a good family. He teaches Hsueh Pan a lesson by giving him a
good beating. His uprightness makes him break his betrothal to Third Sister Yu
because he thinks that there is nothing clean in the Chia family. He wants to have no
association with them.
Lin Chi-hsiao and His Wife
Steward and stewardess of the Chia family.
Lai Ta
Chia Cheng's steward.
Chiao Ta
A servant and benefactor of Chia Chen's father and grandfather. He is a loyal and
outspoken servant and looks down on Chia Chen and Chia Jung, calling them
descendants of a houseful of rutting dogs and bitches in heat.
Ho San
Chou Jui's adopted son. Chia Lien has him whipped because he fights with Pao -erh.
This causes him to conspire with outside brigands and rob the old lady of her gold
and silver. Ironically, he is killed by Pao Jung during the robbery.
Yuan-yang
Lady Dowager's favorite maid. She refuses Chia Sheh's proposal to be his concubine.
When Lady Dowager dies, Yuan-yang hangs herself in an act of devotion.
Hsi-jen (Pervading Fragrance)
She originally served Lady Dowager, but was given to Pao-yu as his servant. She is
loyal to both Lady Dowager and Pao-yu and tries her best to help Pao-yu to study
hard so that he can continue the Chia family's reputation as scholars. At last, she
marries Chiang Yu-han (Chi-kuan).
Li Kuei
Son of Pao-yu's wet nurse, Nanny Li; a man-servant to Pao-yu.
Ching-wen (Bright Design)
Pao-yu's maid. She is rebellious against all unfair treatment. Lady Wang is
prejudiced against her and dismisses her. After she arrives home, she falls ill and
dies.
Tzu-chuan
Tai-yu's devoted maid. After Tai-yu's death, she is asked to serve in Pao-yu's
quarters. At last, she offers to join in Hsi-chun's devotion to Buddhism.
Chin-chuan
Lady Wang's maid. Lady Wang has seen Pao-yu flirting with her and dismisses her.
Once home, she drowns herself in a well.
Mrs. Liu
A cook for the Chia family. Her daughter Liu Wu-erh serves in Pao-yu's quarters.
Liu Wu-erh
Mrs. Liu's daughter. She looks like Ching-wen and serves in Pao-yu's apartment.
Numskull
A maid who does rough work for Lady Dowager. She unintentionally reveals to Tai yu a secret: Pao-yu will be secretly married to Pao-chai instead of to Tai-yu. This
news is responsible for Tai-yu's death.
Mr. Chen Ying-chia
A Chinling native of noble ancestry; principal of the Chinling Provincial College.
The Chen and Chia families are interrelated and have a warm, friendly relationship.
When the Chens' house is raided and searched, he sends his servant Pao Jung to serve
Chia Cheng.
Chen Pao-yu
He looks exactly like Chia Pao-yu; like Chia Pao-yu, he too likes to be in the
company of girls, but—unlike Chia Pao-yu—he is very interested in seeking fame
and fortune.
Goethe, The Sufferings of Young Werther
Werther, a young artist of a highly sensitive and passionate temperament
Wilhelm: a friend to whom Werther’s letters are addressed
Lotte, a beautiful young girl who Werther loves
Albert, Lotte’s fiance and later husband, 11 years her senior
Austen, Northanger Abbey
Catherine Morland: A 17-year-old girl who loves reading Gothic novels.
Something of a tomboy in her childhood, she is wrongly worried that she isn't beautiful
enough, until men start to take an interest in her at the assembly dances. Catherine lacks
experience and sees her life as if she were a heroine in a Gothic novel. She sees the best
in people, and to begin with always seems ignorant of other people's malignant intentions.
She is the devoted sister of James Morland. She is good-natured and frank and often
makes insightful comments on the inconsistencies and insincerities of people around her,
usually to Henry Tilney, and thus is unintentionally sarcastic and funny. She is also seen
as a humble and modest character, becoming exceedingly happy when she receives the
smallest compliment. Catherine's character grows throughout the novel, as she gradually
becomes a real heroine, learning from her mistakes when she is exposed to the outside
world in Bath. She sometimes makes the mistake of applying Gothic novels to real life
situations; for example, later in the novel she begins to suspect General Tilney of having
murdered his deceased wife. Catherine soon learns that Gothic novels are really just
fiction and do not always correspond with reality.
Henry Tilney: A well-read clergyman in his mid-20s, the youngest son of the wealthy
Tilney family. He is Catherine's romantic interest throughout the novel, and during the
course of the plot he comes to return her feelings. He is sarcastic, intuitive, and clever,
given to witticisms and light flirtations (which Catherine is not always able to understand
or reciprocate in kind), but he also has a sympathetic nature (he is a good brother to
Eleanor), which leads him to take a liking to Catherine's naïve straightforward sincerity.
John Thorpe: An arrogant and extremely boastful young man who certainly appears
distasteful to the likes of Catherine.
Isabella Thorpe: A manipulative and self-serving young woman on a quest to obtain a
well-off husband; at the time, marriage was the only way for most young women to
become "established" with a household of their own (as opposed to becoming a
dependent spinster aunt), and Isabella lacks most assets (such as wealth or family
connections to bring to a marriage) that would make her a "catch" on the "marriage
market". Upon her arrival in Bath she is without acquaintance, leading her to immediately
form a quick friendship with Catherine Morland. Additionally, when she learns that
Catherine is the sister to James Morland (whom Isabella suspects to be worth more than
he is in reality), she goes to every length to ensure a connection between the two families.
General Tilney: A stern and rigid retired general with an obsessive nature, General
Tilney is the sole surviving parent to his three children Frederick, Henry, and Eleanor.
Eleanor Tilney: Henry's sister, she plays little part in Bath, but takes on more importance
in Northanger Abbey. A convenient chaperon for Catherine and Henry's times together.
Obedient daughter, warm friend, sweet sister, but lonely under her father's tyranny.
Frederick Tilney: Henry's older brother (the presumed heir to the Northanger estate), an
officer in the army who enjoys pursuing flirtations with pretty girls who are willing to
offer him some encouragement (though without any ultimate serious intent on his part).
Mr. Allen: A kindly man, with some slight resemblance to Mr. Bennet of Pride and
Prejudice.
Mrs. Allen: Somewhat vacuous, she sees everything in terms of her obsession with
clothing and fashion, and has a tendency to utter repetitions of remarks made by others in
place of original conversation.
Flaubert, Madame Bovary
Charles Bovary
A country doctor. He lacks intelligence and imagination; he is naive and
unaggressive and has the most conventional and mundane interests.
Emma Bovary
She is portrayed as an irresponsible, immature, and neurotic woman who is unable to
adjust to the realities of her life.
Rodolphe
Emma's first lover, a shrewd bachelor who lives on his estate near Yonville.
Leon
Emma's early friend and later her second lover.
Marquis d'Andervilliers
A nobleman who invites the Bovarys to a ball at La Vaubyessard, his chateau.
The Blind Beggar
A hideously deformed creature whom Emma encounters several times on the road
between Rouen and Yonville, and who passes beneath her window when she is dying.
His ugly appearance and ghastly song horrify her whenever they meet. He has been
interpreted as a symbol of either Death or the Devil.
Berthe
The daughter of Charles and Emma Bovary.
Binet
The tax collector at Yonville.
Maitre Bocage
Leon's employer at Rouen.
Bournisien
The priest at Yonville. He is a good-natured and simple man but utterly lacking in
intelligence, , or sophistication. He accepts and defends all the dogmatic and
outmoded aspects of official church thought and never dares to question anything. He
has no understanding of the real needs of his parishioners. He represents the
ignorance and inadequacies of the rural clergy in Flaubert's time and serves as an
effective counterpoint to Homais.
Mme. Bovary the Elder
Charles' mother. In order to compensate for the unhappiness of her marriage, she has
been an overly protective and indulgent mother. When her son becomes an adult, she
is grasping and domineering and tries to run his life for him. She is jealous of
Charles' affection for his wife, and as a result, she and Emma do not get along well.
M. Bovary
Charles' father. He is a former army officer who was forced to resign from the
service. He is tyrannical, cruel, and boastful; he spends and drinks too much and is
an unfaithful husband.
Canivet
A doctor from a neighboring town who is called in by Bovary after the operation on
Hippolyte, during Emma's various illnesses, and at the time of her poisoning. He is
hardly more competent than Bovary, but he condescends to him as an inferior, and is
smug about his own skill and reputation.
Felicite
Emma's maid.
Maitre Guillaumin
The lawyer at Yonville for whom Leon originally worked. Emma asks him for help
near the end of the novel.
Maitre Hareng
A sheriff's officer.
Heloise
Bovary's first wife.
Hippolyte
The servant at the inn on whom Bovary and Homais unsuccessfully operate.
Hivert
The coachman at Yonville.
Homais
The apothecary at Yonville. He is one of the most successful supporting characters in
the novel, because there is a complete identity between his function as a character
and his function as the representative of a type. He stands for the new middle-class
spirit and "progressive" outlook that Flaubert detested so much. Homais' intellect is
limited, and he is poorly educated, but he is pretentious and puffed up with selfesteem. His talk consists of cliches and half-truths, and he demonstrates all the
limitations and prejudices of the new bourgeoisie. For example, he is an avowed
agnostic and an exponent of Voltaire, yet he is fearful and superstitious in the face of
death. Furthermore, he is cowardly and irresponsible, as is shown in the aftermath of
the episode concerning the operation on Hippolyte, and though he professes
equalitarian principles, he is himself status conscious. Some of the best comic scenes
in the novel are the conversations between Homais and his rival, the priest. Flaubert's
pessimism is illustrated by the ending of the novel, where Homais' advancement and
personal triumph are described.
Mme. Homais
The apothecary's wife; she is a simple and placid woman.
Justin
Homais' teen-age assistant. He is secretly in love with Emma and is seen crying on
her grave near the end of the novel. He is naive and innocent, but ironically it is
Justin who is responsible for giving Emma the arsenic.
Lagardy
A well-known tenor whom the Bovarys hear at the opera in Rouen; he is also famed
as a lover, and Emma's interest in him serves as an introduction to her meeting with
Leon.
Lariviere
A great doctor from Rouen who arrives too late to save Emma's life, and who is
consulted on other occasions. He is a brilliant and highly skilled physician and is
contemptuous of his less capable colleagues and of such pretentious fools as Homais.
He is coldly superior and aloof in his bearing, yet he is the only doctor in the novel
to express real sympathy for the suffering of his patients and to show a sense of
professional dignity and integrity. Biographers have determined that in this character,
Flaubert portrayed his own father.
Mme. Lefrancois
The owner of the inn at Yonville.
Mlle. Lempereur
The teacher in Rouen who is supposedly giving piano lessons to Emma.
Catherine Leroux
An aged peasant woman who is awarded a prize at the Agricultural Show. Her
humility and dedication are meant to stand in sharp contrast to Emma's way of life.
Lestiboudois
The general handyman and church sexton at Yonville.
Lheureux
An unscrupulous moneylender and commission merchant at Yonville who entices
Emma into debt by playing on her weaknesses and fears. He eventually forces the
Bovarys into bankruptcy, thus precipitating Emma's suicide.
Lieuvain
The representative of the Prefect; he makes a speech at the Agricultural Show. His
platitudes about patriotism, progress, duty, religion, and the nobility of agriculture
serve to illustrate Flaubert's attitude toward the bourgeoisie, and are also an effective
counterpoint to the platitudes about love that Rodolphe is whispering to Emma at the
same time.
Nastasie
Bovary's first maid; she is fired by Emma after the ball.
Roualt
Emma's father. He is a simple and nearly illiterate peasant, but he is the only
character of any significance in the novel who is genuinely warm and unselfish.
Tuvache
The mayor of Yonville.
Vincart
A banker who works with Lheureux in his financial transactions.
Balzac, Lost Illusions
Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Note. Every Russian has three names: first name, patronymic, last name. The root of
the middle name is that of the father, plus a suffix meaning "son of" or "daughter of."
Thus Anna's middle name is "Arkadyevna," while that of her brother is
"Arkadyevitch." Russians call each other by the Christian name and patronymic,
rarely by surname. For the sake of clarity, however, English translators use the
characters' family names wherever possible.
Anna Arkadyevna Karenina
High society heroine whose love affair keynotes the novel.
Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin
Anna's deceived husband. He is a frigid, lonely man with an influential government
position in St. Petersburg.
Sergei Alexeyitch Karenin (Seriozha)
Anna's son whom she is forced to leave for her lover's sake.
Count A
lexey Kirillovitch Vronsky
Anna's lover, an honorable, rich, handsome aide-de-camp with a promising army
career which he gives up in order to live with Anna.
Konstantin Dmitrich Levin (Kostya)
Autobiographical hero of novel.
Princess Katerina Alexandrovna Shtcherbatsky (Kitty)
The eighteen year old debutante who becomes Levin's wife.
Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky (Stiva)
Anna's brother who is a pleasure-loving socialite.
Princess Darya Alexandrovna Oblonsky (Dolly)
Stiva's long-suffering wife and Kitty's older sister.
Nicolai Dmitrich Levin
Levin's profligate brother who dies of tuberculosis.
Sergei Ivanitch Koznyshev
Levin's elder half-brother who is a famous writer and intellectual.
Kafka, The Trial
Josef K – protagonist, a banker, who’s all of a sudden subjected to an
incomprehensible trial, eventually to be murdered.
Fräulein Bürstner - A boarder in the same house as Josef K. She lets him kiss her one
night, but then rebuffs his advances. She makes a brief reappearance in the novel's final
pages.
Frau Grubach - The proprietress of the lodging house in which K. lives. She holds K. in
high esteem.
Uncle Karl - K.'s impetuous uncle from the country, formerly his guardian. Karl insists
that K. hire Herr Huld, the lawyer.
Herr Huld, the Lawyer - K.'s pompous and pretentious advocate who provides precious
little in the way of action and far too much in the way of anecdote.
Leni - Herr Huld's nurse, she has feelings for Josef K and soon becomes his lover. She
shows him her webbed hand, yet another reference to the motif of the hand throughout
the book. Apparently, she finds accused men extremely attractive--the fact of their
indictment makes them irresistible to her.
Assistant Manager - K.'s unctuous rival at the Bank, only too willing to catch K. in a
compromising situation.
Manager - Manager of the Bank. A sickly figure, whose position the Assistant Manager
is trying to assume. Gets on well with K..
Rudi Block, the Tradesman - Block is another accused man and client of Huld. His case
is five years old, and he is but a shadow of the prosperous man he once was. All his time,
energy, and resources are now devoted to his case. Although he has hired hack lawyers
on the side, he is completely and pathetically subservient to Huld.
Titorelli, the Painter - Titorelli inherited the position of Court Painter from his father.
He knows a great deal about the comings and goings of the Court's lowest level. He
offers to help K., and manages to unload a few identical landscape paintings on the
accused man.
Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Clarissa Dalloway A delicate lady of fifty; the wife of Richard Dalloway.
Richard Dalloway Quiet, gentle; holds a government post.
Peter Walsh A former suitor of Clarissa; he is planning to marry the wife of a major
in the Indian Army.
Elizabeth Dalloway Seventeen years old; the daughter of Clarissa and Richard
Dalloway.
Lucy Maid in the Dalloway house.
Scrope Purvis Neighbor of the Dalloways.
Hugh Whitbread Old acquaintance of Richard and Clarissa; has a minor position at
Court.
Evelyn Whitbread Sickly wife of Hugh Whitbread.
Sally Seton Clarissa’s first close friend; now married to Lord Rosseter, and the
mother of five boys.
Doris Kilman Tutor to Elizabeth Dalloway.
Septimus Warren Smith An ex-soldier who is shell-shocked and insane.
Lucrezia Warren Smith Young Italian wife of Septimus.
Justin Parry Clarissa’s father.
Helena Parry Clarissa’s aunt.
Isabel Pole Septimus’ first love.
Evans Sturdy, red-haired comrade of Septimus; killed in Italy shortly before the
Armistice.
Daisy Twenty-four years old; plans to marry Peter Walsh; has two children.
Sir William Bradshaw A self-made man; physician to Septimus.
Dr. Holmes A doctor whom Septimus and Lucrezia consult.
Lady Millicent Bruton Friend of the Dalloways.
Milly Brush Lady Bruton’s secretary.
Miss Pym Clerk in Mulberry’s flower shop.
Joyce, Ulysses (excerpts)
Athos A dog that belonged to Bloom’s father, Rudolph. In his suicide note, the
senior Bloom asked Bloom to care for the animal. Athos corresponds to Odysseus’s
Argos, the faithful dog who waited for his master’s return; after Odysseus returned,
the dog died.
Alec Bannon Bannon, part of Buck Mulligan’s circle, met Milly Bloom, Bloom’s
15-year-old daughter, after Bloom sent her away to Mullingar to study photography
in order to get her out of the house during the affair of Boylan and Molly. Bannon
appears with Mulligan at Dr. Horne’s hospital in “The Oxen of the Sun” and
discusses Milly.
Philip Beaufoy Beaufoy writes shoddy short stories for Titbits, and Bloom, thinking
that Beaufoy is a fine writer, dreams of imitating him, especially his prize-winning
“Matcham’s Masterstroke.”
Richard Irvine Best Best was assistant director (and then director after 1904) of
Dublin’s National Library and appears in “Scylla and Charybdis.”
A Blind Stripling Bloom reveals his charitable nature in “The Lestrygonians” by
helping this young man cross the street; later, the youth turns up as the blind piano
tuner in “The Sirens.” The stripling is bumped into by Lamppost Farrell in “The
Wandering Rocks.”
Leopold Bloom Joyce’s 20th-century Odysseus-Ulysses figure; his wife is Molly,
and he is an ad canvasser for the Freeman’s Journal. For further discussion, see
Character Analyses.
Marcus J. Bloom This Bloom is the dental surgeon mentioned in “The Wandering
Rocks.” He is no relation to the protagonist, and his name provides one of the “traps”
in the episode.
Milly Bloom Bloom’s 15-year-old daughter (See Alec Bannon); she is attractive, as
is her mother, and she is apparently also a bit hefty. Although she is dating Bannon,
she has not yet lost her virginity, even though her mother is “corrupted” by Boylan
on June 16. Milly is a feisty lass, and often Molly has had to curb her insolence.
Bloom’s thoughts of Milly emphasize his stress concerning the passing of time:
Milly is experiencing her first love at approximately the same age as Molly
experienced hers, with Lieutenant Mulvey on Gibraltar.
Molly Bloom Joyce’s earth goddess, she is similar to Chaucer’s Wife of Bath.
Although her appearance in Ulysses occupies only a small part of the novel, her
presence is felt throughout. For further discussion, see Character Analyses.
Rudolph Bloom Bloom’s father, born Rudolph Virag sometime between 1807 and
1816; he died in 1886. Bloom’s planned trip to Ennis to commemorate the
anniversary of his father’s death will prevent him from being with Boylan and Molly
during the upcoming concert tour to Belfast. Rudolph became despondent after his
wife’s death and finally poisoned himself.
Rudy Bloom Bloom’s son, who was born December 29, 1893, and who died January
9, 1894. Molly and Bloom have not had complete sexual intercourse since Rudy’s
death, and Rudy is indeed the last of the Virag-Bloom line. Rudy appears in a vision
to Bloom at the end of “Circe” at the age he would have been had he lived.
Senor A. Boudin Possibly the true name of the swaggering sailor W.B. Murphy,
who appears in “Eumaeus.”
Blazes Boylan He is a singer, the owner of a prize fighter, and a “bill sticker”;
Boylan has sex with Molly sometime shortly after
4:00 p.m. on June 16, 1904. For further discussion, see CharacterAnalyses.
Denis Breen Husband of Josie Breen, a half-mad eccentric who has received a
postcard with “U.P.: up” written on it; he spends a good deal of time trying to find
the lawyer Menton in order to file a lawsuit against the unknown jokester. Breen is
ridiculed in “The Cyclops” as he passes Barney Kiernan’s pub.
Davy Byrne He runs a “moral” pub, to which Bloom escapes in “The Lestrygonians”
to have a glass of burgundy and a cheese sandwich after he has left the swinish eaters
at the restaurant of the Burton Hotel. He and Nosey Flynn think of Bloom as a decent,
quiet man.
Cissy Caffrey Gerty MacDowell’s friend in “Nausicaa,” who abets Gerty in the
“seduction” of Bloom.
Private Harry Carr He taunts Stephen at the beginning of “Circe” and then knocks
him down near the end of that episode when he lets himself believe that Stephen is
threatening the king. His companion is Private Compton.
The Citizen This gross, ardently nationalistic anti-Semite, who can see reality with
only one eye, is Joyce’s modern-day equivalent of a cyclops. He throws a biscuit tin
at Bloom at the end of “The Cyclops” as Bloom escapes in a “chariot” and ascends
into “heaven.” The Citizen is based on Michael (“Citizen”) Cusack (1847-1907),
whose purpose in life was to revive Gaelic games in Ireland.
Martha Clifford Bloom’s pen pal and platonic lover, with whom he corresponds
under the pseudonym Henry Flower. Martha is one of at least 44 respondents to
Bloom’s ad: “Wanted smart lady typist to aid gentleman in literary work.” She is one
of the mysteries in Ulysses since her name is undoubtedly false.
Mrs. Clinch A respectable woman whom Bloom once almost accosted, thinking that
she was a prostitute.
Cochrane An inattentive student whom Stephen calls on at the start of his class in
Mr. Deasy’s school in “Nestor.”
Father Francis Coffey He performs the Absolution during the burial service of
Paddy Dignam in Glasnevin Cemetery in “Hades.” He corresponds to Cerberus, the
mythical dog that guards the entrance to Hell, or Hades.
Bella Cohen Joyce’s parallel to Homer’s Circe, who turns men into swine. She tries
to cheat Stephen during the Nighttown Episode, but Bloom saves Stephen’s money
by threatening to reveal that Bella is financing her son’s way through Oxford by her
earnings from prostitution. Bella becomes Bello (masculine) during Bloom’s major
masochistic “hallucination” in “Circe.”
Father John Conmee, S. J. The rector of Clongowes Wood College who saved
Stephen from a beating in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; he appears in
“The Wandering Rocks,” when he reminisces about his days at Clongowes.
John Corley From “Two Gallants” in Dubliners. Corley sponges money from
Stephen as Stephen and Bloom are heading for the cabman’s shelter in “Eumaeus.”
“Father” Bob Cowley A spoiled priest, “Father” Cowley is one of the illusions in
“The Wandering Rocks!’ since he is called by his first name, Bob, an odd appellation
for a priest.
Cranly Stephen’s close friend in Book Five of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young
Man. In that novel, he serves a role similar to Buck Mulligan’s in Ulysses.
Myles Crawford Editor of the Evening Telegraph; he rejects the compromise made
between Bloom and Alexander Keyes over the ad for the House of Keyes (Keys), and
his blithe (and drunken) attitude costs Bloom his main monetary gain of June 16.
J. T. A. Crofton From “Ivy Day in the Committee Room” in Dubliners. At the end
of “The Cyclops,” he escapes from the Citizen-Cyclops along with Bloom, Martin
Cunningham, and Jack Power in Cunningham’s carriage.
Martin Cunningham A sometimes kindly man who, on the way to Glasnevin
Cemetery, tries to steer the conversation away from suicides (See Bloo m’s father).
After leaving Barney Kiernan’s in “The Cyclops,” he and Bloom go to the Dignams’
house to discuss Paddy’s insurance with his widow.
Dan Dawson His speech sentimentalizing Ireland as a land of purling rills is soundly
ridiculed in “Aeolus.”
Mr. Garrett Deasy Headmaster of the school in Dalkey, where Stephen teaches;
Deasy is anti-Semitic, stingy, anti-female, and pro-British. He corresponds to Nestor,
the windbag orator of Homer’s Odyssey.
Boody Dedalus Stephen’s starving sister who calls her father, Simon, “Our father
who art not in heaven.”
Dilly Dedalus In a pathetic attempt to extricate herself from the family squalor, this
sister of Stephen’s buys a copy of Chardenal’s French Primer. Bloom sees her as a
poor, hungry child who stands outside auction rooms while her father is drinking in
pubs.
Maggy Dedalus Another impoverished sister of Stephen; she fails to convince a
pawn shop to accept her brother’s books.
Mrs. May (Mary) Dedalus Stephen’s refusal to pray at his mother’s deathbed
occasions his major guilt in Ulysses. His mother appears to him in “Circe,” begging
him to repent and to return to the Church. In an act of rebellion, Stephen smashes the
brothel chandelier with his ashplant (walking stick) in “Circe.”
Simon Dedalus Stephen’s alcoholic father; he counters neglect of his family with a
fine sense of humor, a clear critical eye, and an excellent singing voice.
Stephen Dedalus Joyce’s bright, creative, but perplexed young hero, whose story
begins in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. For further discussion, see
Character Analyses.
Charles-Paul de Kock French novelist (1794-1871) who wrote trashy books for the
lower-middle class. Molly thinks that he probably acquired his name because of his
sexual proclivities.
Paddy (Patrick) Dignam His death is the reason why Bloom is at Glasnevin
Cemetery (“Hades”) and the reason why Bloom is dressed in black throughout the
day. Another drunken Dubliner, Dignam corresponds to Odysseus’s inebriated
retainer, Elpenor, who, in Homer’s epic, broke his neck in a fall from the roof of
Circe’s house.
Master Patrick Dignam The main interest of Dignam’s son in his father’s death is
that he might get some time off from school and can become a celebrity for awhile.
Mat Dillon His home provided a meeting place for Bloom and Molly in 1887 when
they were going together. Also, it was at Dillon’s that Bloom bested Menton at bowls,
an affront that the solicitor never forgot.
Dr. Dixon On May 23, 1904, Dixon treated Bloom for a bee sting, this wound in the
side becoming a Christocentric symbol in Ulysses.
Moses Dlugacz At the shop of this pork butcher, Bloom (in “Calypso”) buys a
kidney for breakfast. Also, at Dlugacz’s, Bloom ogles the buxom servant girl of the
Blooms’ next door neighbors, the Woods, although he is unable to follow her after
she leaves the store.
Reuben J. Dodd A stingy legal accountant who is the butt of a joke among
Cunningham, Power, Simon Dedalus, and Bloom on the way to Glasnevin Cemetery.
Ben Dollard An overweight singer who gives a rendition of the patriotic ballad “The
Croppy Boy” in “The Sirens.” Molly once punned on Dollard’s size, saying that he
had a nice “barreltone” voice.
Bob Doran From “The Boarding House” in Dubliners. Doran is on his annual
drinking binge in Ulysses, and his sinister, drunken antics in “The Cyclops” help to
establish the macabre tone of the episode.
Lydia Douce One of Joyce’s sirens in “The Sirens,” Lydia Douce is a barmaid at the
Ormond Hotel. Her observation that Bloom has “greasy eyes” relates him to Christ
since the word is pronounced “grace-y” in Dublin. The other siren at the Ormond is
Mina Kennedy.
Mary Driscoll A maid at the Blooms’ whom Molly dismissed on a false charge
when Bloom began taking an interest in her.
Earl of Dudley (William Humble Ward) The cavalcade of this Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland to open the Mirus Bazaar is one of the structuring devices of “The Wandering
Rocks.”
Kevin Egan A self-exiled Irish patriot whom Stephen meets in Paris before the start
of Ulysses.
John Eglinton (William Kirkpatrick Magee) Influential Anglo-Irish essayist who
patronizes Stephen during Stephen’s discussion of Shakespeare in “Scylla and
Charybdis.”
Lamppost (Cashel Boyle O’Connor Fitzmaurice Tisdall) Farrell A Dublin
eccentric known for his wild clothes and for his habit of walking outside of
lampposts. Farrell is sitting in the National Library’s reading room during the
discussion of Shakespeare in “Scylla and Charybdis.”
James (Skin-the-Goat) Fitzharris He drove the decoy car after the Phoenix Park
Assassinations of 1882. The cabman’s shelter to which Bloom and Stephen go in
“Eumaeus” is said to be operated by him (but probably is not).
“Henry Flower” Bloom’s alias in his correspondence with Martha Clifford.
Nosey Flynn From “Counterparts” in Dubliners. A frequenter of Davy Byrne’s, who
praises Bloom in “The Lestrygonians.”
Ignatius Gallaher From “A Little Cloud” in Dubliners. The star reporter discussed
in the newspaper offices in “Aeolus,” Gallaher broke the story of the Phoenix Park
Assassinations, possibly (Joyce implies) by infiltrating the group of Irish extremists.
Lieutenant Stanley G. Gardner Discussed in “Penelope,” Gardner is probably the
only person (besides Bloom and Boylan) who has complete sexual intercourse with
Molly during her marriage. If the affair did take place, it happened between 1899 and
1901. Gardner died of fever in South Africa during the Boer War.
Garryowen The large dog that menaces Bloom in Barney Kiernan’s pub in “The
Cyclops.” It belongs to Gerty MacDowell’s grandfather, Giltrap.
Uncle Richie Goulding Stephen’s uncle, whom he considers visiting in “Proteus.”
Simon Dedalus intensely dislikes his brother-in-law, who has been ruined by drink
and who forms a pathetic figure as he eats with Bloom (another outcast) in “The
Sirens.”
Haines The patronizing, anti-Semitic Oxonian who rooms with Mulligan and
Stephen in the Martello Tower. Haines, who has come to Ireland to study Irish
folklore, simplistically asserts that all of Ireland’s troubles are attributable to
“history,” not to British misuse.
Charles Wisdom Hely The Dublin stationer and printer for whom Bloom used to
work. Men advertising his business appear in “The Lestrygonians,” walking about
wearing scarlet letters on large white hats.
Ellen Higgins Bloom’s mother, who married Rudolph Bloom, about 1865.
Zoe Higgins A prostitute in “Circe” who takes away Bloom’s talisman, a potato,
which corresponds to Odysseus’s moly (the herb that prevented Odysseus from being
turned into a swine by Circe).
Dr. Andrew J. Horne One of the superintendents of Dublin’s National Maternity
Hospital, the setting for “The Oxen of the Sun.”
Joe Hynes From “Ivy Day in the Committee Room” in Dubliners. Vaguely
associated with the Freeman’s journal and the Evening Telegraph, Hynes unwittingly
includes several bits of false information in his report of Paddy Dignam’s funeral .
Although Hynes owes Bloom money (for which Bloom has asked him three times),
Hynes appears in “The Cyclops” and buys drinks for himself and others.
Georgina Johnson A prostitute upon whom Stephen spent the pound that he had
borrowed from George Russell (A.E.). The loan is the basis for the execrable pun on
Russell’s appellation: “A.E.I.O.U.”
Kathleen Kearney From “A Mother” in Dubliners. A rising songstress of whom Ily
is jealous.
Corny Kelleher Works for an undertaker and is rumored to have underworld
connections. In “The Wandering Rocks,” Kelleher spits out a “silent jet of hayjuice,”
and in “Circe,” he refuses to take Stephen home after Private Carr has knocked him
down.
Alexander Keyes The tea merchant with whom Bloom negotiates the placing
of an ad in the Freeman’s Journal. Keyes will grant a two-month renewal of the ad
in exchange for a free paragraph “puffing” his establishment in Freeman’s. Myles
Crawford, the editor, insists on three months, and Bloom is caught in the middle.
Barney Kiernan The Cyclops Episode takes place in his pub and begins just before
5:00 p.m.
“Kinch” Stephen’s nickname; the sound of the word is probably suggestive of the
cutting sound made by a knife, a reference to Stephen’s sharp Aristotelian logic.
Ned Lambert One of the discussants at the Freeman’s office during “Aeolus.” He
and Simon Dedalus leave the others for a drink at The Oval.
Lunita Laredo Molly’s mother, who married Major Brian Cooper Tweedy. She was
a Spanish Jewess and probably somewhat “fast.” There are hints in Ulysses that
Lunita and Tweedy were not really married and that Molly thus may be illegitimate
(another mystery in the novel).
T.Lenehan From “Two Gallants.” Lenehan apologizes with exaggerated politeness
when he collides with Bloom in the Freeman’s offices, helps spread the rumor that
Bloom is betting on Throwaway in the Ascot Gold Cup race, and is “put down” by
M’Coy (in “The Wandering Rocks”) when he (Lenehan) boasts of once taking
liberties with Molly.
Vincent Lynch A friend of Stephen’s who accompanies him to Nighttown in “Circe”
and later deserts him in the brothel area. Lynch is a Judas figure in Ulysses.
Bantam Lyons From “Ivy Day in the Committee Room.” Spreads the false
information that Bloom has bet on the horse Throwaway when (in “The Lotus Eaters”) Bloom tells him that he is going to throw away his copy of the Freeman’s
Journal and that Lyons can have it. Lyons passes the false tip to Davy Byrne and
Nosey Flynn in “The Lestrygonians” and later to Lenehan.
Thomas William Lyster The “Quaker Librarian” who appears in the National
Library in “Scylla and Charybdis” and discusses aesthetics with Stephen and others.
Florence MacCabe An old woman whom Stephen sees on the beach in “Proteus”;
probably the same Florence MacCabe who figures in Stephen’s Parable of the Plums.
In both cases, Stephen calls the woman this name.
Gerty MacDowell Joyce’s Nausicaa, who entices Bloom into masturbating when she
reveals her upper thigh and underwear in Joyce’s 13th episode.
Professor Hugh MacHugh One of the principals in the newspaper offices in
“Aeolus,” MacHugh underlines the theme of Ireland’s bondage to Britain.
Man in the Macintosh A mysterious figure who turns up at Dignam’s funeral.
Hynes, mishearing a remark by Bloom in “Hades,” has him appear as a person named
M’Intosh in the Telegraph article.
Mrs. Mastiansky A friend of Molly’s. In “Penelope,” Molly alludes to the unusual
sexual practices of Mr. Mastiansky.
C. P. M’Coy A strange Dubliner who is in the habit of borrowing valises and then
pawning them. Although he does not show up at Dignam’s funeral, he is reported to
have been there in Hynes’s newspaper story.
John Henry Menton A solicitor who is ruffled in “Hades” when Bloom points out a
dent in his hat. Menton was once a rival for Molly’s affections, and, in 1887, at Mat
Dillon’s, Bloom bested him at a game of bowls.
George Robert Mesias Bloom’s tailor who once explained that Bloom was hard to
fit since both his testicles were on the right side. Bloom became acquainted with
Boylan at Mesias’s shop in
September, 1903.
George Moore Well-known Irish novelist. It is revealed in “Scylla and Charybdis”
that Stephen has not been invited to Moore’s get-together on the evening of June 16,
even though Mulligan and Haines have been asked to come to the literary discussion.
Buck Mulligan The complex alter ego of Stephen; he is witty, cynical, and
blasphemous, but he is also courageous. Mulligan “baits” Stephen several times in
Ulysses and, finally, he apparently has a physical scuffle with him before Stephen
leaves for the brothel district. At the end of Ulysses, Mulligan and Haines return to
the Martello Tower, and the now homeless Stephen finds that his place has been
irrevocably usurped by this Dublin medical student.
Lieutenant Harry Mulvey Molly’s first love, when she was fifteen, on Gibraltar. In
“Penelope,” Molly remembers masturbating him into a handkerchief, and she
wonders what he is doing now.
W. B. Murphy A sailor who appears in the cabman’s shelter in “Eumaeus”; the
drunken red-bearded Murphy is Joyce’s embodiment of the Returning Wanderer. He
is apparently from the three-master Rosevean, which Stephen sees at the end of
“Proteus.”
Joseph Patrick Nannetti Foreman of the Freeman’s who half-listens to Bloom’s
problems over the Keyes’s ad, then leaves Dublin for the House of Commons, h aving
settled nothing about the exchange.
J. J. O’Molloy One of the cronies at the newspaper office in “Aeolus.” He opens a
door and strikes Bloom (accidently); there is no room for Bloom in this “inn.”
Charles Stewart Parnell The great Irish nationalist whose fall influenced so much
of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses. Parnell’s demise began in
1890, when details of his relationship with Kitty O’Shea, his mistress, were revealed
in the O’Shea divorce trial. He died in 1891. Myths surrounding Parnell are
discussed most prominently in “Eumaeus.”
Pat the Waiter In “The Sirens,” Pat is described as being “a waiter who waits while
you wait.” At this point, Bloom too is “waiting”—for the adultery of Boylan and
Molly to begin.
Jack Power His unknowing comments about suicides on the way to Dignam’s
funeral embarrass Bloom, although Martin Cunningham tries to console him. Later,
Bloom meets with Cunningham, Power, and Crofton in Barney Kiernan’s pub (“The
Cyclops”).
Mina Purefoy Mrs. “Purefaith” has lain three days in labor, and her new son is
finally born in “The Oxen of the Sun.” Her husband’s name is Theodore (“Godgiven”).
Mrs. “Dante” Riordan Stephen’s tutor in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man;
she is also a friend of the Blooms. Molly ridicules her in “Penelope” because Mrs.
Riordan didn’t leave them a bequest.
Harry Rumbold A barber-hangman whose application for the post of executioner is
discussed at length in “The Cyclops.”
George Russell (A. E.) Theosophist and man of letters whose stress upon the
essences and ultimate forms of things in his discussion of Shakespeare in “Scylla and
Charybdis” casts him as “Plato,” in contrast to Stephen, who is “Aristotle.” Bloom
sees Russell bicycling in “The Lestrygonians,” accompanied by Lizzie Twigg, the
young woman whom Bloom rejected for the typist position in favor of Martha
Clifford.
Cyril Sargent A sniveling student in Stephen’s class at Mr. Deasy’s school, who
(because of his ineptitude) reminds Stephen of his own school days at Clongowes.
Sceptre The horse which Boylan bets on that loses the Gold Cup race. See
Throwaway.
The Shan Van Vocht The Poor Old Woman who personifies downtrodden Ireland,
but who will become a beautiful queen when the country takes its rightful place in
the world. Joyce’s parody of this mythic creature is embodied in this old lady who
brings milk to the Martello Tower in “Telemachus.”
F. W. Sweny The druggist from whom Bloom buys a bar of lemon soap, but Bloom
forgets to return to the druggist’s shop to pick up Molly’s skin lotion.
Talbot A cheating student in Stephen’s class at Deasy’s school.
Tatters A dog which Stephen sees on the beach in “Proteus”; Stephen wonders if the
animal is digging up his (the dog’s) grandmother. Tatters typifies the “God-dog”
theme in Ulysses.
John F. Taylor A famous Dublin orator whose speech of October 24, 1901, in favor
of reviving Gaelic is praised in “Aeolus.”
Throwaway The dark horse who wins the 1904 Gold Cup race, besting Sceptre,
Boylan’s choice. Like Throwaway, Bloom has been “thrown away” by Molly, but he
may yet end by winning over Boylan. It is the mistaken belief that Bloom has won on
the race that causes him trouble in “The Cyclops,” when the men at Barney
Kiernan’s pub wonder why Bloom won’t stand them to drinks to celebrate his gains.
See Bantam Lyons.
Major Brian Cooper Tweedy Molly’s hard-drinking, pipe-smoking father, who was
stationed on Gibraltar when she was born. Whether or not Tweedy was a major at all
and not just a sergeant-major, and whether or not he is indeed Molly’s father through
a union with Lunita Laredo are two of the mysteries of Ulysses.
Lizzie Twigg Applicant for the job of typist in response to Bloom’s ad, whom
Bloom turns down because he thinks she might be too arty. Twigg was an actual
poetess and an associate of George Russell (A. E.).
Virag The name of Bloom’s father, grandfather, and great grandfather. Bloom’s
father changed his name to “Bloom,” from “Virag,” which means “flower”in
Hungarian.
Reggie Wylie Gerty MacDowell’s boyfriend, with whom she has had a spat,
probably making her more enthusiastic about “seducing” Bloom in “Nausicaa.”
Musil, Man Without Qualities (excerpts)
The first book, entitled "A Sort of Introduction", is an introduction of the main
character of the story, a 32-year old mathematician named Ulrich who is in search of a
sense of life and reality but fails to find it. His ambivalence towards morals and
indifference to life has brought him to the state of being "a man without qualities,"
depending on the outer world to form his character. A kind of keenly analytical passivity
is his most typical attitude.
Musil said that it was not particularly difficult to describe Ulrich in his main features.
Ulrich himself only knows he is strangely indifferent to all his qualities. Lack of any
profound essence and ambiguity as a general attitude to life are his principal
characterizations.
Meanwhile, we meet maniacal murderer and rapist Moosbrugger who is condemned for
his murder of a prostitute. Other protagonists are Ulrich's nymphomaniac mistress
Bonadea and his friend Walter's neurotic wife Clarisse, whose refusal to go along with a
commonplace day-to-day existence leads to Walter's insanity.
In the second book, entitled "Pseudoreality Prevails", Ulrich joins the so-called
"Collateral Campaign", frantic preparations for a celebration in honor of 70 years of the
Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph's reign. That same year, 1918, the German Emperor
Wilhelm II would be ruler of his country for 30 years. This collateral coincidence lashes
all the Austrian patriots into a fury of action to demonstrate Austria's political, cultural
and philosophical supremacy via a feast which will capture the minds of the Austrian
Emperor's subjects and people of the whole world for ever. On that account, many bright
ideas and visions are discussed (e.g., The Austrian Year 1918, The World Year 1918, The
Austrian Peace Year 1918 or The Austrian World Peace Year 1918).
A couple of people take part in the organization team or just catch the eye of Ulrich.
Ermelinda Tuzzi, called Diotima[1], is Ulrich's cousin as well as the wife of a civil
servant; she tries to become a Viennese muse of philosophy, inspiring and encouraging
whoever crosses her path; she miraculously attracts both Ulrich and Arnheim. The
nobleman in charge of the Campaign, the old conservative Count Leinsdorf, is incapable
of deciding or even of not-deciding. General Stumm von Bordwehr, of the Imperial and
Royal Army, is unpopular for his attempts in this generally mystical atmosphere, to make
things systematic, and German Count Paul Arnheim (modeled after German politician
Walter Rathenau) is an admirer of Diotima's accessible combination of physical beauty
and spirit, without feeling the necessity to marry her.
While most of the participants (Diotima most feverishly) try to associate the reign of
Franz Joseph I with vague ideas of humanity, progress, tradition and happiness, the
followers of Realpolitik see a chance to exploit the situation: Stumm von Bordwehr
wishes to get the Austrian army income raised, and Arnheim plans to buy oil fields in an
eastern province of Austria.
The focus of the last volume, entitled "Into the Millennium (The Criminals)", is Ulrich's
sister Agathe (who enters the novel at the end of the second book). They experience a
mystically incestuous stirring upon meeting after their father's death. They see
themselves as soul mates or, as the book says, "siamese-twins".
As published, the novel ends in a large section of drafts, notes, false-starts and forays
written by Musil as he tried to work out the proper ending for his book. In the German
edition, there is even a CD-ROM available that holds thousands of pages of alternate
versions and drafts.
Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
First generation
[edit José Arcadio Buendía
The patriarch of the Buendía family, José Arcadio Buendía is strong-willed, immovable
by others (both physically and mentally), but has a deep interest in philosophical
mysteries. Buendía is responsible for leading Macondo through its early stages, but
disappears from the storyline when he goes insane searching for the Philosopher's stone.
Eventually he loses his sanity, speaking instead in Latin. He is tied to a chestnut tree and
serves as a reminder of the early Macondo but is released by Úrsula a short time before
his death.
[edit] Úrsula Iguarán
José Arcadio Buendía's wife is the matriarch of the family, as well as the member who
lives through the most generations. Úrsula runs the family with a strong will and firm
hand through several portions of the book, and dies somewhere between the ages of 114
and 122.
[edit] Second generation
[edit] José Arcadio
José Arcadio Buendía's firstborn son, José Arcadio seems to have inherited his father's
headstrong, impulsive mannerisms. When the Gypsies come to Macondo, a Gypsy
woman who sees José Arcadio's naked body exclaims that he has the biggest sex organ
she has ever seen. He has an affair with a woman named Pilar Ternera, but leaves her
after getting her pregnant. He eventually leaves the family to chase a Gypsy girl and
unexpectedly returns many years later as an enormous man, claiming that he'd sailed the
seas of the world. He marries his adopted sister Rebeca, causing his banishment from the
mansion, and he dies from a mysterious gunshot wound, days after saving his brother
from execution.
[edit] Colonel Aureliano Buendía
José Arcadio Buendía's second son and the first person to be born in Macondo, he was
named after an earlier ancestor. Aureliano was born with his eyes open after having wept
in his mother's womb. This act caused him to have the incapacity for love. He was
thought to have premonitions because everything he said came true. He appeared to have
inherited his father's pensive, philosophical nature. He studies metallurgy, and joins the
Liberal party when war breaks out. He fights the Conservative government in 32 civil
wars, and avoids death multiple times. Having lost all interest in the war, he signs a peace
treaty and returns home. In his old age, he loses all capacity for emotion or memory,
spending each day making and unmaking tiny golden fish. He dies while urinating on the
tree to which his father had been tied for so many years. He represents not only a warrior
figure but also an artist due to his ability to write poetry and create finely crafted golden
fish.
[edit] Remedios Moscote
Remedios was the youngest daughter of the town's Conservative administrator, Don
Apolinar Moscote. Her most striking physical features are her beautiful skin and her
emerald-green eyes. The future Colonel Aureliano falls in love with her, despite her
extreme youth. She is so young, in fact, that the wedding must be delayed until she
reaches puberty. To everyone's surprise, she makes a wonderful and sweet wife who
gains everyone's hearts. She is the only one who takes care of José Arcadio Buendía
during his illness. However, she dies shortly after the marriage due to complications with
her pregnancy.
[edit] Amaranta
The third child of José Arcadio Buendía, Amaranta grows up as a companion of her
stepsister Rebeca; her feelings toward Rebeca, however, turn sour over Pietro Crespi,
whom both sisters intensely desire in their teenage years. Amaranta even wishes to kill
Rebeca so she could have Pietro, but then little Remedios dies and Amaranta suffers an
emotional crisis. When Rebeca marries José Arcadio instead, Amaranta rejects any man
who seeks her out, including Pietro Crespi, who courts her after Rebeca leaves him; she's
so afraid of commitment that she completely rejects Crespi, who kills himself in despair.
She is then courted by her brother's close friend and comarade in arms- Col. Gerineldo
Marquez, unfortunately she wards off his interest too for the same reason. Her virginal
repression expresses itself through her incestuous relationships with her nephews
Aureliano José and José Arcardio. Death in the form of an old woman comes to
Amaranta and commands her to begin weaving a funeral shroud, and upon the shroud's
completion, Amaranta dies that night, a lonely and virginal spinster, but comfortable in
her existence after having finally accepted what she had become.
[edit] Rebeca
Rebeca is an orphan that came from Manaure, a village near Macondo. At first she was
extremely timid, refused to talk, and had the habits of eating earth and whitewash from
the walls of the house (a condition known as pica), and sucking her finger. When she
arrived, she brought with her her parents' bones and an insomnia plague; Úrsula helps her
to heal from the first and the revived Melquíades brings the cure for the latter. Rebeca
grows up into a headstrong beauty and becomes engaged to Pietro Crespi, Amaranta's
future fiancé, but leaves him to marry José Arcadio, after he returned from travelling the
entire globe; she had become tired of all the wedding delays and her relationship to
Amaranta had been destroyed over their rivalry. Disowned by Úrsula for marrying in a
period of mourning for Aureliano's wife Remedios and for the "inconceivable lack of
respect" their pseudo-incestuous marriage directed at Úrsula, the pair move to another
home and lived happily on their own. When her husband dies mysteriously, perhaps by
her own hand, Rebeca seems to disappear completely from the novel. Embittered, she
bars the door and lives in solitude; her only source of comfort appears to be her memories.
Rebeca dies of old age on her bed, with her finger inside her mouth.
[edit] Third generation
[edit] Arcadio
Arcadio is José Arcadio's illegitimate son by Pilar Ternera. He is a schoolteacher, but
assumes leadership of Macondo when Colonel Aureliano Buendía leaves, upon
Aureliano's request. He becomes a tyrannical dictator and uses his schoolchildren as his
personal army, and Macondo becomes subject to his whims. He attempts to uproot the
church, persecute Conservatives living in the town (like Don Apolinar Moscote), and
patrols the town with his troops, but when he tried to execute Don Apolinar for a snide
remark, Ursula whips him, and takes control of the town. Upon receiving news that the
Conservative forces had made a comeback, Arcadio resolves to fight the Conservatives
that fall upon the town, with the resources they have, despite gross disadvantages. The
Liberal forces in Macondo fall, and Arcadio is shot shortly after the defeat by the
Conservative firing squad.
[edit] Aureliano José
Aureliano José is the son of Colonel Aureliano Buendía, also by Pilar Ternera. He joins
his father in several wars, but returns to Macondo because he is in love with his aunt,
Amaranta, who raised him since his birth. The two almost engage in sexual activities, but
Amaranta rejects him once she realizes the full extent of her actions. Aureliano José
grows up in the military and intends to seek Amaranta's acceptance, but she still keeps
rejecting him, and eventually he gives up. He came to know who his mother was and
accepted her in his life. Finally, Aureliano José is shot to death by a Conservative captain
of the guard midway through the wars, for running away from a squad of police; the
captain is shot too, and each Macondo man shoots his lifeless body as a revenge.
[edit] Santa Sofía de la Piedad
Santa Sofía is a beautiful virgin girl and the daughter of a shopkeeper, hired by Pilar
Ternera to have sex with her son Arcadio after Arcadio, unaware of their bonds as mother
and son, tried to force himself on Pilar. She becomes the wife of Arcadio and the mother
of Remedios the Beauty, José Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Segundo, and is taken in
along with her children by the Buendías after Arcadio's execution. She is mainly an
invisible character in the novel, staying in the background as a maid in the Buendía
household more or less voluntarily, apparently since she liked to be nonexistent in the
family history. Eventually, she began to feel that the house itself was crumbling no matter
what she did to keep it in shape. After Úrsula's death she leaves unexpectedly, not
knowing her destination.
[edit] 17 Aurelianos
During his 32 civil war campaigns, Colonel Aureliano Buendía has 17 sons by 17
different women, each of whom he stays with for only one night. It is explained that,
traditionally, young women were sent to sleep with soldiers, and the Buendía household
is visited by 17 different mothers wanting Úrsula to baptize their sons. Úrsula accepts the
fact and baptizes them all with the name Aureliano and the same last name as the mother,
hoping that her son will take care of the matter later. Later on the sons return to the
Buendía house and are accepted by the Buendías. Four of these Aurelianos (A. Triste, A.
Serrador, A. Arcaya and A. Centeno) stay in Macondo and become a permanent part of
the family. Eventually, as a revenge against the Colonel, all are assassinated by the
government, identified by the mysteriously permanent Ash Wednesday cross on their
foreheads. The only survivor of the massacre is A. Amador, who escapes into the jungle,
only to be assassinated at the doorstep of his father's house many years later, after being
rejected admittance by relatives who have never met him.
[edit] Fourth generation
[edit] Remedios the Beauty
Remedios is Arcadio and Santa Sofía's first child, and she inherits her mother's beauty. It
is said she's the most beautiful woman in the world, thus causing the deaths of several
men who love or lust over her. She appears to most of the town naively innocent,
practically to the point of stupidity according to some, throughout her life. However,
Colonel Aureliano Buendía believes she has inherited great lucidity: "It is as if she's gone
to war". This ability to penetrate flamboyant social construct results in Remedios leading
a simple life that would be considered idiosyncratic. She rejects clothing and beauty,
sewing a cassock as her only clothing, and shaving her feet-long hair to not have to comb
it. Ironically, it is her touch with base human instinct that perpetuates her as an object of
lust for more men, whom she treats with complete innocence and no reservations. Too
beautiful and, arguably, too wise for the world, Remedios ascends into the sky one
morning, while folding laundry.
[edit] José Arcadio Segundo
José Arcadio Segundo is the twin brother of Aureliano Segundo, the children of Arcadio
and Santa Sofía. Úrsula believes that the two were switched in their childhood, as José
Arcadio begins to show the characteristics of the family's Aurelianos, growing up to be
pensive and quiet. He plays a major role in the banana worker strike, and is the only
survivor when the company massacres the striking workers. Afterward, he spends the rest
of his days studying the parchments, and tutoring the young Aureliano. He dies at the
exact instant that his twin does.
[edit] Aureliano Segundo
Of the two brothers, Aureliano Segundo is the more boisterous and impulsive, much like
the José Arcadios of the family. He takes his first girlfriend Petra Cotes as his mistress,
even during his marriage to the beautiful and bitter Fernanda del Carpio. When living
with Petra, his livestock propagate wildly, and he indulges in unrestrained revelry. After
the long rains, his fortune dries up, and the Buendías are left almost penniless. He turns to
search for a buried treasure, eventually almost going insane. He wastes away, and dies of
throat cancer at the same moment as his twin. During the confusion at the funeral, the
bodies are switched, and each is buried in the other's grave. He represents Colombia's
economy: gaining and losing weight according to the situation at the time.
[edit] Fernanda del Carpio
Fernanda is the only major character (except for perhaps Rebeca, and the First
generation) that does not originate in Macondo. She comes from a ruined aristocrat
family that kept her isolated from the world in her school and is an extremely beautiful
woman; she was chosen as the most beautiful girl among 5000 girls. Fernanda is brought
to Macondo to compete with Remedios for the title of Queen of the carnival, after her
father promises her she will be the Queen of Madagascar. After the fiasco, she marries
Aureliano Segundo and soon takes the leadership of the family away from the now-frail
Úrsula and manages Buendía affairs with an iron fist. She has three children by Aureliano
(José Arcadio, Renata Remedios aka Meme and Amaranta Úrsula), and remains in the
house after he dies, taking care of the household until her death.
Fernanda is never accepted by anyone in the Buendía household, and though the
Buendías do nothing to rebel against her inflexible conservatism, she is generally
regarded by the family as an outsider, and a "stuck up highlander". In the course of the
novel, Fernanda's mental and emotional instability is revealed through her paranoia, her
correspondence with the 'invisible doctors', and her irrational behavior towards Aureliano,
whom she tries to isolate from the whole world. She is the only one who knows of the
true parentage of Aureliano Babilonia until she reveals to her son Jose Arcadio in her
letters.
[edit] Fifth generation
[edit] Renata Remedios (Meme)
Meme is the second child and first daughter of Fernanda and Aureliano Segundo. While
she doesn't inherit Fernanda's beauty, she does have Aureliano Segundo's love of life and
natural charisma. After her mother declares that she play the clavichord and do nothing
else, she is sent to school and receives her performance degree along with recognition for
her excellent academic grades. While she pursues the clavichord with 'an inflexible
discipline', to placate Fernanda, she also enjoys partying and exhibits the same tendency
towards excess as her father, even befriending women from the banana plantation.
Meme meets and falls in love with Mauricio Babilonia, a handsome mechanic of Gypsy
blood working for the banana plantation, but when Fernanda finds out that they were
having sexual relations, she arranges for Mauricio to be shot by claiming that he was a
chicken thief, and takes Meme to a convent. Meme remains mute for the rest of her life,
partially because of the trauma, but also as a sign of rebellion and determination. Several
months later we know she was pregnant because she gives birth to a son, Aureliano, at
the convent; he is sent to live with the Buendias. She dies of old age in an unknown
hospital in Krakow.
[edit] José Arcadio (II)
José Arcadio, named after his ancestors in the Buendía tradition, follows the trend of the
previous Arcadios. He is raised by Úrsula, who intends for him to become the Pope.
Returning home from Rome (without having become a priest) after the death of his
mother, he discovers a buried treasure and begins to waste it on lavish parties. Later, he
begins a tentative friendship with Aureliano Babilonia, his nephew. José Arcadio plans to
set Aureliano up in a business and return to Rome, but is murdered in his pool by four
schoolchildren who steal his gold.
[edit] Amaranta Úrsula
Amaranta Úrsula is the third child of Fernanda and Aureliano. She displays the same
characteristics as her namesake, Úrsula, who dies when she is only a child: willful,
cheerful, tries to work hard for the sake of her happiness and the others. She never knows
that the child sent to the Buendía home is her nephew, the illegitimate son of Meme; he
becomes her best friend in childhood and early adolescence. She returns home from
Europe with an elder husband, Gastón, who leaves her when she informs him of her
passionate affair with Aureliano, her nephew, which later evolves into love. She dies of
hemorragia, after she has given birth to the last Aureliano of the family.
[edit] Sixth generation
[edit] Aureliano Babilonia (Aureliano II)
Aureliano is the illegitimate child of Meme. He is sent to the house and hidden from
everyone by his grandmother, Fernanda. He is strikingly similar to his namesake, the
Colonel, and has the same character patterns as well: taciturn, silent, emotionally charged.
He barely knows Úrsula, who dies during his childhood. He is a friend of José Arcadio
Segundo, who explains to him the true story of the banana worker massacre.
While other members of the family leave and return, Aureliano stays at the house. He
only ventures into the empty town after the death of Fernanda. He works to decipher the
parchments of Melquíades but stops to have an affair with his childhood partner and the
love of his life Amaranta Úrsula, not knowing that she's his aunt. When both she and her
child die, he is able to decipher the parchments. "...Melquíades' final keys were revealed
to him and he saw the epigraph of the parchments perfectly placed in the order of man's
time and space: The first in line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by ants." He is
assumed to have died along with the rest of Macondo, now a nearly deserted town.
[edit] Seventh generation
[edit] Aureliano (III)
The illegitimate child of Aureliano and his aunt, Amaranta Úrsula. The child was born
with a pig's tail, as the eldest and long dead Úrsula had always feared would happen (the
parents of the child had never heard of the omen) . The mother died while giving birth to
her son, and due to the negligence of his grief-stricken father, the son is devoured by ants.
When he sees the corpse, Aureliano Babilonia is hit with the realization of the
parchment's meaning.
[edit] Others
[edit] Melquíades
Melquíades is one of a troop of Gypsies who would visit Macondo every year in March,
displaying amazing items from around the world (note: a second, different Gypsy troop
begins visiting the town bringing wonders such as magic carpets and ice along with the
snake man that prompts Jose Arcadio's disappearance). Melquíades sells José Arcadio
Buendía several new inventions, including a pair of magnets and an alchemist's lab. Later,
the Gypsies report that Melquíades died in Singapore, but he nonetheless returns to live
with the Buendía family, stating he could not bare the solitude of death. He stays with the
Buendias and begins to write the mysterious parchments that Aureliano Babilonia
eventually translates, before dying a second time; this time he drowns in the river near to
Macondo, and is buried in a grand ceremony organized by the Buendias.
After Melquiades' death, Marquez makes reference to one of his earlier short stories, Big
Mama's Funeral.
[edit] Pilar Ternera
Pilar is a local woman who sleeps with the brothers Aureliano and José Arcadio. She
becomes mother of their sons, Aureliano José and Arcadio. Pilar reads the future with
cards, and every so often makes an accurate, though vague, prediction. She has close ties
with the Buendias throughout the whole novel, helping them with her card predictions.
She dies after she turns 145 years old (she eventually stops counting), surviving until the
very last days of Macondo.
The name "Ternera" is likely a play on the word "Ternura", which in Spanish means
"Tenderness". Pilar is always presented as a very loving figure, and the author often uses
names in a similar fashion.
[edit] Pietro Crespi
Pietro is a very handsome and polite Italian musician who runs a music school and
installs the pianola in the Buendía house. He becomes engaged to Rebeca, but Amaranta,
who also loves him, manages to delay the wedding for years. When José Arcadio claims
Rebeca for his own wife and she accepts, Pietro begins to woo Amaranta, who is so
embittered that she cruelly rejects him. Despondent over the loss of both sisters, he kills
himself.
[edit] Petra Cotes
Petra is a dark-skinned woman with gold-brown eyes similar to those of a panther. She is
Aureliano Segundo's mistress, as well as the love of his life. She arrives in Macondo as a
teenager with her first husband, who starts running the local lottery and dies few years
before she meets the twins; she briefly dates both of them, mistaking them to be the same
man, and after José Arcadio decides to leave her and never see her again, Aureliano
Segundo gets her forgiveness and remains by her side. He continues to see her, even after
his marriage, and eventually lives with her; this greatly embitters his wife, Fernanda del
Carpio, even after she comes to publicly accept the fact. When Aureliano and Petra make
love, their animals reproduce at an amazing rate, but their livestock is wiped out during
the five years of rain. Petra makes money by keeping the lottery alive, and provides food
baskets for Fernanda and her family after the death of Aureliano Segundo.
[edit] Mr. Herbert and Mr. Brown
Mr. Herbert is a gringo who showed up at the Buendía house for lunch one day. tasting
the local bananas for the first time, he arranges for a banana company to set up a
plantation in Macondo. The banana company is run by the dictatorial Mr. Brown. Meme
befriends his daughter, Patricia. When José Arcadio Segundo helps arrange a strike, the
company traps the strikers and machine guns them in the town square, stacking the
corpses on a secret train and dumping them into the sea. José Arcadio is the only one who
remembers the slaughter. The company arranges for the army to kill off any resistance,
then leaves Macondo for good, but not before causing it to rain for almost five years.
That event is likely based on the Banana massacre, that took place in Santa Marta,
Colombia in 1928.
[edit] Mauricio Babilonia
Mauricio is a brutally honest, generous and handsome mechanic for the banana company,
who is said to be a descendent of the Gypsies who used to visit Macondo in the early
days. He has the unusual characteristic of being constantly swarmed by yellow butterflies,
which follow even his lover for a time. Mauricio begins a romantic affair with Meme,
whom he met at the banana company when she accompanied some gringo girls to check
on the new cars, until Fernanda discovers them and tries to end it. When Mauricio
continues to sneak into the house to see her, Fernanda has him shot as a chicken thief.
Meme, having endured the shock of having witnessed his crippling, spends the rest of her
life in a convent imposed by Fernanda. However, Meme is pregnant with the mechanic's
son who is named Aureliano. The boy is delivered by a nun to the Buendia house in a
basket.
[edit] Gastón
Gastón is Amaranta Úrsula's Belgian husband. She marries him in Europe and returns to
Macondo leading him on a silk leash. Gastón is about fifteen years older than his wife.
He is an aviator and an adventurer. When he realizes his wife intends to stay in Macondo,
he arranges for his airplane to be shipped over so he can start an airmail service. The
plane is shipped to Africa by mistake. When he travels there to claim it, Amaranta writes
him of her love for Aureliano (Babilonia) Buendia. Gastón takes the news in stride, only
asking that they ship him his velocipede.
[edit] Gabriel Márquez
He is only a minor character in the novel but he has the distinction of bearing the
same name as the author's. He is the great-great-grandson of Colonel Gerineldo Márquez.
He and Aureliano Babilonia are close friends because they know the history of the town
that no one else believes in. He leaves for Paris after winning a contest and decides to
stay there, selling old newspapers and empty bottles -- he is one of the few who is able to
leave Macondo before the town is wiped out entirely.
Cortazar, Hopscotch
The main character, Horacio Oliveira, is a well-read and loquacious bohemian. He
is a spectator and spends most of his time philosophizing. At first it seems Horacio is
content merely to exist but really he is desperately searching for a purpose to his life.
For lack of an alternative, La Maga becomes Horacio's life-purpose. She is a beguiling,
profound, and improvisational woman. La Maga develops into a muse and a lense for
Horacio--inspiring him to examine himself and Paris more thoroughly. She is a point of
origin for Horacio and the novel itself.
When Horacio returns to Argentina he is greeted by his old friend Traveler. Traveler
holds a steady job and is happily married. He has chosen to participate in society where
Horacio feels contempt. Though friends, Traveler and Horacio are foils. Horacio even
refers to Traveler as his "doppelgänger."
Other major characters include Talita, Traveler's wife; Rocamadour, La Maga's son; Pola,
Horacio's lover; and the members of the Serpent Club: Ossip, Wong, Ronald, Babs and
Étienne.
Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah
The novel takes place in the imaginary West African country of Kangan, where a
Sandhurst-trained officer, identified only as Sam and known as His Excellency, has taken
power following a military coup. Achebe describes the political situation through the
experiences of three friends: Chris Oriko, the government's Commissioner for
Information; Beatrice Okoh, an official in the Ministry of Finance and girlfriend of Chris;
and Ikem Osodi, a newspaper editor critical of the regime. Other characters include
Elewa, Ikem's girlfriend and Major "Samsonite" Ossai, a military official known for
stapling hands with a Samsonite stapler. Tensions escalate through the novel, culminating
in the assassination of Ikem by the regime, the toppling and death of Sam and finally the
murder of Chris. The novel ends with a non-traditional naming ceremony for Elewa and
Ikem's month old daughter, organised by Beatrice.