# Exiles — Character guide

> Key figures in Exiles by James Joyce.

- [Richard Rowan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/exiles_se/characters/richard_rowan.md): Richard Rowan returns to Dublin as a celebrated essayist, but his real experiment is domestic: he refuses to claim Bertha as property and speaks of affections that should flow freely to many. That doctrine collides with 
- [Bertha Rowan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/exiles_se/characters/bertha_rowan.md): Bertha Rowan rose before dawn, sleepless, and stands between two men who each believe they know what she should want. She reads Robert's newspaper tribute to her husband and hears, in the same hour, that Robert is packin
- [Robert Hand](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/exiles_se/characters/robert_hand.md): Robert Hand tells Richard to his face that he loves Bertha and would take her however he can, then confesses he was drawn to her partly because she belongs to a stronger man. He is charming, self-aware, and helpless befo
- [Beatrice Justice](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/exiles_se/characters/beatrice_justice.md): Beatrice Justice is the first to bring Bertha the news of Robert's article and the first to sense the coldness between the two men. She is a light sleeper who hears her cousin's valise and whistling, and she admits she h
- [Archie Rowan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/exiles_se/characters/archie_rowan.md): Archie Rowan is old enough to notice what the grown-ups hide and young enough to say it aloud, reporting to his father who came to the house and what was said. His name carries a patriot's legacy, and his parents' friend
- [Brigid](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/exiles_se/characters/brigid.md): The Rowan family's maid, who looks after Archie and the household.
- [Mrs. Rowan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/exiles_se/characters/mrs_rowan.md): Richard's mother, mentioned but deceased before the story begins.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/exiles_se/characters