Stories Flashcards
Who is secretly being kept in Thornfield?
Bertha Mason, Rochester’s wife who has gone insane
How is the marriage between Rochester and Jane stopped?
Jane had sent a letter to her uncle, who spoke with Robert Mason, the brother of Bertha. He intervened to stop the illegal marriage
What are the names of the three cousins Jane grew up with?
Georgiana Reed, Eliza Reed, and John Reed
What are the names of Jane’s cousins whom she lives with after fleeing Thornfield?
St. John Rivers, Diana, and Mary Rivers
What is the name of the boarding school Jane attends until she turns 18?
Lowood Institution
What leads Jane to advertise as a governess?
Her friend Maria Temple, the principal of Lowood, marries, and she becomes restless without her there.
What is the name of the palace the demons create in Hell?
Pandemonium
Who claim to be the children of Satan?
Sin and Death
Which demons oppose continuing to wage war, and what are their reasons?
Mammon and Belial oppose war. Mammon thinks they won’t gain any profit in waging war, but they can uncover gems, etc. in hell. Belial argues against it because he is slothful, but is eloquent in his argument.
Why does Satan leave hell at the end of the second book?
He is planning to locate the rumored new creation of God, in order to hurt God by harming the new creations, with the hopes of also ruling over the new creations
Who convinces the demons to seek out the new creation rumored to have been recently created by God?
Beelzebub suggests they investigate the new creation during the debate on what to do.
Which people abandon Everyman and reject to help him?
Fellowship, Kindred, Cousin, Goods. Then, after joining: Strength, Beauty, Discretion, and Five Wits. Finally, Knowledge also leaves him because she can’t follow after he dies.
Who is sent by God to have Everyman come account for his life?
Death, who agrees to let Everyman choose someone to come with him.
Who must Everyman see in order to make Good Deeds stronger?
Confession, and after seeing him, he scourges himself which strengthens her.
Who remains with Everyman until he reaches heaven to be judged?
Good Deeds
What supernatural events appear to happen to convince Faustus to repent?
The words, “Flee, man” appear in Latin on his arm before he signs away his soul in blood;
What are some of the ways Faustus uses the unlimited power granted to him by the contract with Lucifer?
He visits the Pope and plays tricks on him; he summons demons in the appearance of famed people of the past (Helen of Troy); he is entertained by demons in the forms of the Seven Deadly Sins
What is the name of the woman who was caught in adultery, and who was she cheating with?
Hester Prynne; Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale
Who is Chillingworth?
He is Hester’s husband who wants to take revenge on Hester and Rev. Dimmesdale
Who is Hester’s daughter, and what is her personality like?
Pearl; she is mischievous and observant, and the townspeople fear her and claim she was born of the devil
What is Dimmesdale like?
Dimmesdale is tormented by guilt, punishing himself physically and psychologically to the point of becoming ill; he is smart, eloquent, and his sermons are moving
Describe Reverend John Wilson.
An older reverend, Wilson is typically puritan, preaching hellfire and damnation to the townspeople.
What are Chillingworth’s motivations, and his history?
He was living in Europe, while Hester was sent to America. He was later captured by Native Americans, before arriving in Boston and seeing Hester and her daughter being punished. He wishes to take revenge on her and her lover for her cheating on him.
What one thing does Hester not sew for the townspeople after she becomes accepted by society again?
Wedding clothes
What does Chillingworth pretend to be?
A doctor (AKA “leech” in slang)
What is the name of Beloved’s mother?
Sethe
Who is Denver?
Denver is Sethe’s daughter, she survived while Beloved was killed with a saw by Sethe. Denver was saved from being dashed against a wall to death
Who is Paul D?
He was one of the men who lived on the plantation Sweet Home with Sethe and her husband Halle. He is in a romantic/sexual relationship with Sethe, but eventually leaves after Beloved overtakes the house and he learns about Sethe killing Beloved
Who is Baby Suggs?
She is Halle’s mother. Baby Suggs witnessed Sethe killing Beloved and almost killing Denver, and experienced rejection of the community after being a spiritual/community leader, but they rejected her because of her wealth and generosity as well as due to the incident with Sethe. Baby Suggs inspired her community to care for Denver, and for Denver to reintegrate into society after Baby’s death.
Who is Stamp Paid?
He is a spiritual leader in the community. He saved many slaves, and he also is the one who saved Denver’s life before Sethe could kill her. Stamp realizes he may not have offered or been involved enough in helping Sethe and her family and is angry at the community’s lack of care for Sethe and Denver.
Who is Amy Denver?
Amy is the girl who encountered Sethe when she was escaping enslavement, and she helped Sethe by massaging her legs and getting her to a boat to escape with Denver.
Who are Mr. and Mrs. Garner?
The white owners of Sweet Home. After Mr. Garner’s death, he is replaced with Schoolteacher. The hypocrisy of the couple’s “benevolent slavery” is revealed later for characters such as Paul D
Beelzebub
Satan’s second-in-command. Beelzebub discusses with Satan their options after being cast into Hell, and at the debate suggests that they investigate the newly created Earth. He and Satan embody perverted reason, since they are both eloquent and rational but use their talents for wholly corrupt ends.
Belial
One of the principal devils in Hell. Belial argues against further war with Heaven, but he does so because he is an embodiment of sloth and inactivity, not for any good reason. His eloquence and learning is great, and he is able to persuade many of the devils with his faulty reasoning.
Mammon
A devil known in the Bible as the epitome of wealth. Mammon always walks hunched over, as if he is searching the ground for valuables. In the debate among the devils, he argues against war, seeing no profit to be gained from it. He believes Hell can be improved by mining the gems and minerals they find there.
Mulciber
The devil who builds Pandemonium, Satan’s palace in Hell. Mulciber’s character is based on a Greek mythological figure known for being a poor architect, but in Milton’s poem he is one of the most productive and skilled devils in Hell.
Moloch
A rash, irrational, and murderous devil. Moloch argues in Pandemonium that the devils should engage in another full war against God and his servant angels.
Sin
Satan’s daughter, who sprang full-formed from Satan’s head when he was still in Heaven. Sin has the shape of a woman above the waist, that of a serpent below, and her middle is ringed about with Hell Hounds, who periodically burrow into her womb and gnaw her entrails. She guards the gates of Hell.
Death
Satan’s son by his daughter, Sin. Death in turn rapes his mother, begetting the mass of beasts that torment her lower half. The relations between Death, Sin, and Satan mimic horribly those of the Holy Trinity.
Satan
Head of the rebellious angels who have just fallen from Heaven. As the poem’s antagonist, Satan is the originator of sin—the first to be ungrateful for God the Father’s blessings. He embarks on a mission to Earth that eventually leads to the fall of Adam and Eve, but also worsens his eternal punishment. His character changes throughout the poem. Satan often appears to speak rationally and persuasively, but later in the poem we see the inconsistency and irrationality of his thoughts. He can assume any form, adopting both glorious and humble shapes.
St. John Rivers
Along with his sisters, Mary and Diana, St. John (pronounced “Sinjin”) serves as Jane’s benefactor after she runs away from Thornfield, giving her food and shelter. The minister at Morton, St. John is cold, reserved, and often controlling in his interactions with others. Because he is entirely alienated from his feelings and devoted solely to an austere ambition, St. John serves as a foil to Edward Rochester.
Mrs. Reed
Mrs. Reed is Jane’s cruel aunt, who raises her at Gateshead Hall until Jane is sent away to school at age ten. Later in her life, Jane attempts reconciliation with her aunt, but the old woman continues to resent her because her husband had always loved Jane more than his own children.
Bessie Lee
The maid at Gateshead, Bessie is the only figure in Jane’s childhood who regularly treats her kindly, telling her stories and singing her songs. Bessie later marries Robert Leaven, the Reeds’ coachman.
Mr. Lloyd
Mr. Lloyd is the Reeds’ apothecary, who suggests that Jane be sent away to school. Always kind to Jane, Mr. Lloyd writes a letter to Miss Temple confirming Jane’s story about her childhood and clearing Jane of Mrs. Reed’s charge that she is a liar.
Georgiana Reed
Georgiana Reed is Jane’s cousin and one of Mrs. Reed’s two daughters. The beautiful Georgiana treats Jane cruelly when they are children, but later in their lives she befriends her cousin and confides in her. Georgiana attempts to elope with a man named Lord Edwin Vere, but her sister, Eliza, alerts Mrs. Reed of the arrangement and sabotages the plan. After Mrs. Reed dies, Georgiana marries a wealthy man.
Eliza Reed
Eliza Reed is Jane’s cousin and one of Mrs. Reed’s two daughters (along with her sister, Georgiana). Not as beautiful as her sister, Eliza devotes herself somewhat self-righteously to the church and eventually goes to a convent in France where she becomes the Mother Superior.
John Reed
John Reed is Jane’s cousin, Mrs. Reed’s son, and brother to Eliza and Georgiana. John treats Jane with appalling cruelty during their childhood and later falls into a life of drinking and gambling. John commits suicide midway through the novel when his mother ceases to pay his debts for him.
Helen Burns
Helen Burns is Jane’s close friend at the Lowood School. She endures her miserable life there with a passive dignity that Jane cannot understand. Helen dies of consumption in Jane’s arms.
Mr. Brocklehurst
The cruel, hypocritical master of the Lowood School, Mr. Brocklehurst preaches a doctrine of privation, while stealing from the school to support his luxurious lifestyle. After a typhus epidemic sweeps Lowood, Brocklehurst’s shifty and dishonest practices are brought to light and he is publicly discredited.
Maria Temple
Maria Temple is a kind teacher at Lowood, who treats Jane and Helen with respect and compassion. Along with Bessie Lee, she serves as one of Jane’s first positive female role models. Miss Temple helps clear Jane of Mrs. Reed’s accusations against her.
Alice Fairfax
Alice Fairfax is the housekeeper at Thornfield Hall. She is the first to tell Jane that the mysterious laughter often heard echoing through the halls is, in fact, the laughter of Grace Poole—a lie that Rochester himself often repeats.
Bertha Mason
Rochester’s clandestine wife, Bertha Mason is a formerly beautiful and wealthy Creole woman who has become insane, violent, and bestial. She lives locked in a secret room on the third story of Thornfield and is guarded by Grace Poole, whose occasional bouts of inebriation sometimes enable Bertha to escape. Bertha eventually burns down Thornfield, plunging to her death in the flames.
Grace Poole
Grace Poole is Bertha Mason’s keeper at Thornfield, whose drunken carelessness frequently allows Bertha to escape. When Jane first arrives at Thornfield, Mrs. Fairfax attributes to Grace all evidence of Bertha’s misdeeds.
Adèle Varens
Jane’s pupil at Thornfield, Adèle Varens is a lively though somewhat spoiled child from France. Rochester brought her to Thornfield after her mother, Celine, abandoned her. Although Celine was once Rochester’s mistress, he does not believe himself to be Adèle’s father.
Celine Varens
Celine Varens is a French opera dancer with whom Rochester once had an affair. Although Rochester does not believe Celine’s claims that he fathered her daughter Adèle, he nonetheless brought the girl to England when Celine abandoned her. Rochester had broken off his relationship with Celine after learning that Celine was unfaithful to him and interested only in his money.
Richard Mason
Richard Mason is Bertha’s brother. During a visit to Thornfield, he is injured by his mad sister. After learning of Rochester’s intent to marry Jane, Mason arrives with the solicitor Briggs in order to thwart the wedding and reveal the truth of Rochester’s prior marriage.
Mr. Briggs
John Eyre’s attorney, Mr. Briggs helps Richard Mason prevent Jane’s wedding to Rochester when he learns of the existence of Bertha Mason, Rochester’s wife. After John Eyre’s death, Briggs searches for Jane in order to give her her inheritance.
Blanche Ingram
Blanche Ingram is a beautiful socialite who despises Jane and hopes to marry Rochester for his money.
Diana Rivers
Diana Rivers is Jane’s cousin, and the sister of St. John and Mary. Diana is a kind and intelligent person, and she urges Jane not to go to India with St. John. She serves as a model for Jane of an intellectually gifted and independent woman.
Mary Rivers
Mary Rivers is Jane’s cousin, the sister of St. John and Diana. Mary is a kind and intelligent young woman who is forced to work as a governess after her father loses his fortune. Like her sister, she serves as a model for Jane of an independent woman who is also able to maintain close relationships with others and a sense of meaning in her life.
Rosamond Oliver
Rosamond is the beautiful daughter of Mr. Oliver, Morton’s wealthiest inhabitant. Rosamond gives money to the school in Morton where Jane works. Although she is in love with St. John, she becomes engaged to the wealthy Mr. Granby.
John Eyre
John Eyre is Jane’s uncle, who leaves her his vast fortune of 20,000 pounds.
Uncle Reed
Uncle Reed is Mrs. Reed’s late husband. In her childhood, Jane believes that she feels the presence of his ghost. Because he was always fond of Jane and her mother (his sister), Uncle Reed made his wife promise that she would raise Jane as her own child. It is a promise that Mrs. Reed does not keep.
Sethe
Sethe, the protagonist of Beloved, is a proud and independent woman who is extremely devoted to her children. Though she barely knew her own mother, Sethe’s motherly instincts are her most striking characteristic. Unwilling to relinquish her children to the physical, emotional, sexual, and spiritual trauma she endured as a slave at Sweet Home, she attempts to murder them in an act of motherly love and protection. She remains haunted by this and other scarring events in her past, which she tries, in vain, to repress.
Denver
Sethe’s youngest child, Denver is the most dynamic character in the novel. Though intelligent, introspective, and sensitive, Denver has been stunted in her emotional growth by years of relative isolation. Beloved’s increasing malevolence, however, forces Denver to overcome her fear of the world beyond 124 and seek help from the community. Denver’s foray out into the town and her attempts to find permanent work and possibly attend college mark the beginning of her fight for independence and self-possession.
Beloved
Beloved’s identity is mysterious. The novel provides evidence that she could be an ordinary woman traumatized by years of captivity, the ghost of Sethe’s mother, or, most convincingly, the embodied spirit of Sethe’s murdered daughter. On an allegorical level, Beloved represents the inescapable, horrible past of slavery returned to haunt the present. Her presence, which grows increasingly malevolent and parasitic as the novel progresses, ultimately serves as a catalyst for Sethe’s, Paul D’s, and Denver’s respective processes of emotional growth.
Paul D
The physical and emotional brutality suffered by Paul D at Sweet Home and as part of a chain gang has caused him to bury his feelings in the “rusted tobacco tin” of his heart. He represses his painful memories and believes that the key to survival is not becoming too attached to anything. At the same time, he seems to incite the opening up of others’ hearts, and women in particular tend to confide in him. Sethe welcomes him to 124, where he becomes her lover and the object of Denver’s and Beloved’s jealousy. Though his union with Sethe provides him with stability and allows him to come to terms with his past, Paul D continues to doubt fundamental aspects of his identity, such as the source of his manhood and his value as a person.
Baby Suggs
After Halle buys his mother, Baby Suggs, her freedom, she travels to Cincinnati, where she becomes a source of emotional and spiritual inspiration for the city’s black residents. Baby Suggs holds religious gatherings at a place called the Clearing, where she teaches her followers to love their voices, bodies, and minds. However, after Sethe’s act of infanticide, Baby Suggs stops preaching and retreats to a sickbed to die. Even so, Baby Suggs continues to be a source of inspiration long after her death: in Part Three, her memory motivates Denver to leave 124 and find help. It is partially out of respect for Baby Suggs that the community responds to Denver’s requests for support.
Stamp Paid
Like Baby Suggs, Stamp Paid is considered by the community to be a figure of salvation, and he is welcomed at every door in town. An agent of the Underground Railroad, he helps Sethe to freedom and later saves Denver’s life. A grave sacrifice he made during his enslavement has caused him to consider his emotional and moral debts to be paid off for the rest of his life, which is why he decided to rename himself “Stamp Paid.” Yet by the end of the book, he realizes that he may still owe protection and care to the residents of 124. Angered by the community’s neglect of Sethe, Denver, and Paul D, Stamp begins to question the nature of a community’s obligations to its members.
Schoolteacher (Beloved)
Following Mr. Garner’s death, schoolteacher takes charge of Sweet Home. Cold, sadistic, and vehemently racist, schoolteacher replaces what he views as Garner’s too-soft approach with an oppressive regime of rigid rules and punishment on the plantation. Schoolteacher’s own habits are extremely ascetic: he eats little, sleeps less, and works hard. His most insidious form of oppression is his “scientific” scrutiny of the slaves, which involves asking questions, taking physical measurements, and teaching lessons to his white pupils on the slaves’ “animal characteristics.” The lower-case “s” of schoolteacher’s appellation may have an ironic meaning: although he enjoys a position of extreme power over the slaves, they attribute no worth to him.
Halle
Sethe’s husband and Baby Suggs’s son, Halle is generous, kind, and sincere. He is very much alert to the hypocrisies of the Garners’ “benevolent” form of slaveholding. Halle eventually goes mad, presumably after witnessing schoolteacher’s nephews’ violation of Sethe.
Lady Jones
Lady Jones, a light-skinned Black woman who loathes her blond hair, is convinced that everyone despises her for being a woman of mixed race. Despite her feelings of alienation, she maintains a strong sense of community obligation and teaches the underprivileged children of Cincinnati in her home. She is skeptical of the supernatural dimensions of Denver’s plea for assistance, but she nevertheless helps to organize the community’s delivery of food to Sethe’s plagued household.
Ella
Ella worked with Stamp Paid on the Underground Railroad. Traumatized by the sexual brutality of a white father and son who once held her captive, she believes, like Sethe, that the past is best left buried. When it surfaces in the form of Beloved, Ella organizes the women of the community to exorcise Beloved from 124.
Mr. and Mrs. Garner
Mr. and Mrs. Garner are the comparatively benevolent owners of Sweet Home. The events at Sweet Home reveal, however, that the idea of benevolent slavery is a contradiction in terms. The Garners’ paternalism and condescension are simply watered-down versions of schoolteacher’s vicious racism.
Mr. and Miss Bodwin
Siblings Mr. and Miss Bodwin are white abolitionists who have played an active role in winning Sethe’s freedom. Yet there is something disconcerting about the Bodwins’ politics. Mr. Bodwin longs a little too eagerly for the “heady days” of abolitionism, and Miss Bodwin demonstrates a condescending desire to “experiment” on Denver by sending her to Oberlin College. The distasteful figurine Denver sees in the Bodwins’ house, portraying a slave and displaying the message “At Yo’ Service,” marks the limits and ironies of white involvement in the struggle for racial equality. Nevertheless, the siblings are motivated by good intentions, believing that “human life is holy, all of it.”
Amy Denver
A nurturing and compassionate girl who works as an indentured servant, Amy is young, flighty, talkative, and idealistic. She helps Sethe when she is ill during her escape from Sweet Home, and when she sees Sethe’s wounds from being whipped, Amy says that they resemble a tree. She later delivers baby Denver, whom Sethe names after her.
Paul A, Paul F, and Sixo
Paul A and Paul F are the brothers of Paul D. They were slaves at Sweet Home with him, Halle, Sethe, and, earlier, Baby Suggs. Sixo is another fellow slave. Sixo and Paul A die during the escape from the plantation.
Faustus
The protagonist. Faustus is a brilliant sixteenth-century scholar from Wittenberg, Germany, whose ambition for knowledge, wealth, and worldly might makes him willing to pay the ultimate price—his soul—to Lucifer in exchange for supernatural powers. Faustus’s initial tragic grandeur is diminished by the fact that he never seems completely sure of the decision to forfeit his soul and constantly wavers about whether or not to repent. His ambition is admirable and initially awesome, yet he ultimately lacks a certain inner strength. He is unable to embrace his dark path wholeheartedly but is also unwilling to admit his mistake.
Mephastophilis
A devil whom Faustus summons with his initial magical experiments. Mephastophilis’s motivations are ambiguous: on the one hand, his oft-expressed goal is to catch Faustus’s soul and carry it off to hell; on the other hand, he actively attempts to dissuade Faustus from making a deal with Lucifer by warning him about the horrors of hell. Mephastophilis is ultimately as tragic a figure as Faustus, with his moving, regretful accounts of what the devils have lost in their eternal separation from God and his repeated reflections on the pain that comes with damnation.
Nnu Ego
The novel’s protagonist. At the beginning of the novel, slim, long-necked Nnu Ego is known for her youthful beauty and is often compared to her mother, the high-spirited Ona. Although she has her mother’s strength and singleness of purpose, she is more polite and compliant and less aggressive and outspoken than Ona. She leaves her husband after she cannot get pregnant, and she later attempts suicide when her firstborn is found dead. Eventually, she settles into a bittersweet life of challenge and sacrifice with Nnaife and her children in Lagos.
Amatokwu
Nnu Ego’s first husband. When Amatokwu fails to impregnate Nnu Ego, he eventually asks her to move to an outer hut to make room for his second wife. He forces Nnu Ego to work in the fields if she cannot be productive bearing children. When he discovers Nnu Ego breast feeding his second wife’s son, he savagely beats her, prompting their eventual divorce. Despite the abuse, Nnu Ego still holds him up as the standard of Ibo manhood.
Nnaife
Nnu Ego’s second husband. Nnaife is short, with a large paunch, pale skin, puffy cheeks, and untraditionally long hair. He is both sensitive and tender with his wife as well as nasty and unsympathetic about the demands made of her as a woman. After he loses his job washing for the Meers, he becomes an assistant to a group of Englishmen and is then employed cutting grass for the railroad, where he is forced to join the army. He is sent to India and Burma to fight in World War II. Eventually disillusioned with his life and family, he attempts to murder Kehinde’s Yoruba father-in-law and is sentenced to five years in prison. When he is released early, he returns to Ibuza a broken man.
Ngozi
Nnu Ego and Nnaife’s first child. Ngozi dies in infancy, and his death marks a turning point in the novel, prompting Nnu Ego’s suicide attempt. He is a source of guilt and regret, a specter that haunts Nnu Ego for years.
Adaku
Nnaife’s brother’s wife whom Nnaife inherits when his brother dies. Young, attractive, peaceful, and self-satisfied, Adaku joins the family in Lagos and soon starts a thriving and lucrative business selling in the marketplace. Her wealth and success go unrecognized because she bears no sons, only two daughters. Tired of her role of inferiority, she moves out of the household and threatens to become a prostitute. The name Adaku means “daughter of wealth.”
Adankwo
The eldest wife of Nnaife’s older brother. Tough, strong, wiry, and dependable, Adankwo is in her early forties and a voice of wisdom and reason among the Ibuza women. She advises Nnu Ego to return home to Lagos in order to keep an eye on Adaku. When Nnaife impregnates her with her last child, she refuses to return to Lagos with him and arranges to have Okpo sent instead.
Adimabua
The second living son of Nnu Ego and Nnaife, known as Adim. Observant and intelligent, Adim grows up in the shadow of his older brother. He quickly figures out the entitlement due him as a male and realizes the opportunities denied him as the second oldest. Quick to act, he prevents his father from murdering the Yoruba butcher. Like Oshia, Adim aspires to better things and later leaves Nigeria to pursue his education in Canada. His name means “now I am two” and shows his place in the male hierarchy of the family.
Agbadi
Nnu Ego’s father. Agbadi is a highly respected local chief known for both his skill at oratory and for his physical prowess. Cold, disrespectful, and cruel to his wives, he is loving and indulgent to his daughter, whom he treats as the embodiment of and last link to his beloved mistress, Ona. He is a constant source of support and a voice of reason in Nnu Ego’s life.
Cordelia
Ubani’s wife. Cordelia is kindhearted and a good friend to Nnu Ego when she makes the initially tough transition to life in Lagos. She is also a source of jealousy and conflict. Nnu Ego resents the easier, more stable life Cordelia seems to have, an attitude that sparks squabbles and petty disagreements between the women. Her name reveals the colonial influence on the region.
Mama Abby
A prosperous Ibo woman and confidant of Nnu Ego’s. Mama Abby earns respectability through the advancement of her son, the intelligent, upwardly mobile Abby. Her husband was a European who had worked in the Nigerian colonial service. He eventually returned to Europe, leaving his family well provided for. She, too, is of a mixed racial background. Slim, ladylike, and an eventual mother figure to Nnu Ego, Mama Abby is considered upper class but likes to live modestly with other Ibos. Many of the men view her as a negative influence and do not want their wives associating with her.
Dr. Meers
Nnaife and Ubani’s employer. Dr. Meers is the chief occupant of the Yaba compound and works at the Forensic Science Laboratory in Taba. The doctor makes little attempt to hide his racist attitudes concerning his African employees, overtly calling Nnaife a “baboon.”
Mrs. Meers
Dr. Meers’s wife. Mrs. Meers, the only white female character in the novel, has gray, sunken eyes, and appears to have been prematurely aged by the climate and her life in West Africa. She believes she is kind to her African staff, chiding her husband for his racist remarks, but at the same time she maintains a haughty and aloof demeanor of social superiority in their presence.
Obi Umunna
Ona’s father. A great chief and doting father, Obi Umunna is particularly protective of his daughter’s honor and freedom. He allows her to have lovers but does not force her to commit to a marriage. He prizes only an elusive male heir, which his daughter never produces. He is ridiculed for not finding a suitable match for his daughter and viewed by some as an ineffective father because of it.
Okpo
Nnaife’s sixteen-year-old bride. Okpo is sent to Lagos to live with the family when Adankwo refuses to leave Ibuza. Though she is Nnaife’s wife, Okpo has childlike qualities herself. She understands her traditional role as a wife and praises and flatters Nnu Ego for raising such clever and accomplished children.
Ona
Nnu Ego’s mother. Ona is known for her catlike grace and youthful exuberance as she runs about the village with her breasts exposed. She wears expensive waist beads and is later held to be conservative, haughty, cold, and remote when she wins the role of Agbadi’s favorite mistress. She is often reminded of her place as an Ibuzan women when she openly challenges and taunts her lover.
Oshiaju
Nnu Ego’s oldest surviving son, known as Oshia. Medicine men predict Oshiaju will be an intelligent man of infinite resources whose success will provoke jealousy in others. Tender and firm, Oshia physically resembles his father. He aggressively pursues higher education, working in a laboratory in Lagos and eventually winning a scholarship to a university in America. His name means “the bush has refused this,” referencing his health and the long life predicted for him.
Taiwo and Kehinde
Nnu Ego and Nnaife’s oldest twin girls. Kehinde is quieter and more introspective than Taiwo. She radically breaks with tradition by marrying a Yoruba man. Taiwo is the more fun-loving and adaptable twin. She aspires for a dependable husband and stable home life, both of which she finds with the clerk Magnus. He finds his ideal match in an uneducated wife content with the more traditional role of bearing and raising children.
Ubani
Friend of the Owulums. At first, Ubani is a cook in the Meers’s compound. A good provider, he later gets Nnaife a job cutting grass for the railroad. He is a stable presence in the lives of those around him. He is the one who calmly informs Nnaife that his son, Ngozi, has died.
Beowulf
The protagonist of the epic, Beowulf is a Geatish hero who fights the monster Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a fire-breathing dragon. Beowulf’s boasts and encounters reveal him to be the strongest, ablest warrior around. In his youth, he personifies all of the best values of the heroic culture. In his old age, he proves a wise and effective ruler.
King Hrothgar
The king of the Danes. Hrothgar enjoys military success and prosperity until Grendel terrorizes his realm. A wise and aged ruler, Hrothgar represents a different kind of leadership from that exhibited by the youthful warrior Beowulf. He is a father figure to Beowulf and a model for the kind of king that Beowulf becomes.
Grendel
A demon descended from Cain, Grendel preys on Hrothgar’s warriors in the king’s mead-hall, Heorot. Because his ruthless and miserable existence is part of the retribution exacted by God for Cain’s murder of Abel, Grendel fits solidly within the ethos of vengeance that governs the world of the poem.
Grendel’s mother
An unnamed swamp-hag, Grendel’s mother seems to possess fewer human qualities than Grendel, although her terrorization of Heorot is explained by her desire for vengeance—a human motivation.
The dragon
An ancient, powerful serpent, the dragon guards a horde of treasure in a hidden mound. Beowulf’s fight with the dragon constitutes the third and final part of the epic.
Shield Sheafson
The legendary Danish king from whom Hrothgar is descended, Shield Sheafson is the mythical founder who inaugurates a long line of Danish rulers and embodies the Danish tribe’s highest values of heroism and leadership. The poem opens with a brief account of his rise from orphan to warrior-king, concluding, “That was one good king” (11).
Beow
The second king listed in the genealogy of Danish rulers with which the poem begins. Beow is the son of Shield Sheafson and father of Halfdane. The narrator presents Beow as a gift from God to a people in need of a leader. He exemplifies the maxim, “Behavior that’s admired / is the path to power among people everywhere” (24–25).
Halfdane
The father of Hrothgar, Heorogar, Halga, and an unnamed daughter who married a king of the Swedes, Halfdane succeeded Beow as ruler of the Danes.
Wealhtheow
Hrothgar’s wife, the gracious queen of the Danes.
Unferth
A Danish warrior who is jealous of Beowulf, Unferth is unable or unwilling to fight Grendel, thus proving himself inferior to Beowulf.
Christian
Husband and father stricken by spiritual crisis. Christian is told by a messenger to leave his doomed city and begin a journey of progress toward spiritual achievement.
Evangelist
The messenger carrying the Gospel, or word of Christ, to Christian. Evangelist spurs Christian on his journey to the Celestial City.
Obstinate
A neighbor of Christian’s in the City of Destruction who refuses to accompany him.
Pliable
A neighbor of Christian’s who accompanies him for a while. After falling in the Slough of Despond, Pliable is discouraged and returns home, only to be mocked by the townsfolk.
Help
Fellow pilgrim who helps pull Christian from the Slough of Despond.
Worldly Wiseman
A reasonable and practical man whom Christian encounters early in his journey. Worldly Wiseman tries unsuccessfully to urge Christian to give up his religious foolishness and live a contented secular life.
Formalist
A traveler whom Christian meets along the wall of Salvation. With his companion Hypocrisy, Formalist sneaks over the wall, instead of following the strait and narrow as Christian did.
Hypocrisy
Formalist’s travel companion.
Discretion
One of the four mistresses of the Palace Beautiful. Discretion takes Christian in and feeds him.
Piety
One of the four mistresses of the Palace Beautiful. Piety asks Christian about his journey so far.
Prudence
One of the four mistresses of the Palace Beautiful. Prudence tries to understand Christian’s purpose in traveling to Mount Zion.
Charity
One of the four mistresses of the Palace Beautiful. Charity asks Christian why he did not bring his family, which causes him to weep.
The Interpreter
Spiritual guide who shelters Christian. The Interpreter instructs Christian in the art of reading religious meanings hidden in everyday objects and events, which he houses in his Significant Rooms.
Apollyon
Fierce monster with fish scales, bear feet, and dragon wings. Apollyon threatens Christian and fights him with sword until Christian defeats him.
Shining Ones
Three celestial creatures who clothe Christian with new garments and give him the certificate. The Shining Ones act as guardians throughout Christian’s journey.
Faithful
Fellow pilgrim from Christian’s hometown who reports on the city they both left behind. Faithful loyally accompanies Christian until he is executed in the town of Vanity for the crime of disrespecting the local Satan-worshipping religion.
Talkative
Fellow pilgrim who travels alongside Christian and Faithful for a while. Talkative is spurned by Christian for valuing spiritual words over religious deeds.
Mr. By-ends
A user of religion for personal ends and social profit. Mr. By-ends accompanies Christian briefly after Christian escapes from Vanity.
Hopeful
Pilgrim who replaces Faithful as Christian’s travel companion and confidant after leaving Vanity, all the way to the Celestial City. Hopeful saves Christian’s life in the river before the gates to Mount Zion.
Giant Despair
Master of the Doubting Castle. Giant Despair imprisons Hopeful and Christian for trespassing on his domain and is later killed by Great-heart and Christiana’s sons.
Diffidence
Giant Despair’s wife. She encourages the harsh punishment of Hopeful and Christian in the Doubting Castle.
Demas
Gentlemanly figure who tries to entice Christian and Hopeful with silver and dreams of wealth.
Temporary
A would-be pilgrim whom Christian speaks of in a cautionary way, warning of Temporary’s backsliding before his spiritual progress was complete.
Sagacity
An elderly man who visits the narrator in his dream. After the narrator asks after Christian’s family, Sagacity offers to take the narrator’s place as the storyteller and recount Christiana’s journey.
Christiana
Christian’s wife and the titular pilgrim in Part II. As a spiritual voyager and a guide to her children, Christiana shows remarkable strength and resilience on the journey.
Mercy
Christiana’s neighbor employed by her as a servant on her pilgrimage. She later marries Matthew, Christiana’s eldest son.
Matthew
Christiana’s eldest son, who eventually marries Mercy. After stealing fruit from the devil’s garden, Matthew must be healed by Dr. Skill.
Ill-Favored Ones
Two strangers who attempt to harm Christiana and Mercy.
Reliever
Fellow pilgrim who rescues Christiana and Mercy from the two Ill-Favored Ones.
Mr. Great-heart
The Interpreter’s manservant. He protects and guides Christiana and Mercy on their way up the hill of Difficulty and toward the House Beautiful.
Watchful
Porter of the House Beautiful.
Grim
Master of the lions, who threatens Christiana and Mercy on their way to the House Beautiful.
Maul
A giant killed by Great-heart. He accuses Great-heart of kidnapping the pilgrims.
Mr. Brisk
Mercy’s suitor. He ends their affair because she is too involved in charity work.
Old Honest
An elderly pilgrim. While accompanying Christiana and her group, he relates the sad demise of the pilgrim Fearing.
