# Michael Shatov — Revolving Lights character guide

> Michael Shatov in Revolving Lights by Dorothy M. Richardson.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Michael, Little Michael

**First appearance:** 0001-revolving-lights

## Snapshot

Michael Shatov brings Miriam into rooms she cannot enter, eager to display her and blind to what the display costs her.

## Who they are

Michael is the Russian-Jewish intellectual whose encyclopaedic mind and bright beginning voice steer every evening he arranges, from the hotel gaslight to the Lintoffs' cold upstairs bedroom. He is pleased and unfatigued while Miriam sits reduced to a symbol of his choosing, her Englishness a spectacle for his friends. His eagerness to share her is genuine and his failure to see her is total, and that double fact is what makes him matter: he is the door through which the novel's central loneliness walks into view.

## Relationships

### [Miriam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/revolving_lights_se/characters/miriam)

_psychological_

Michael is obsessively drawn to Miriam, seeing her as a symbol of his own spiritual and intellectual ideals, creating a one-sided fixation.

### [Eleanor Dear](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/revolving_lights_se/characters/eleanor_dear)

_friendship_

Eleanor and Michael share a friendship based on intellectual discussions and mutual respect, though Michael is often distracted by Miriam.

### [Miriam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/revolving_lights_se/characters/miriam)

_psychological_

Michael is obsessively drawn to Miriam, seeing her as a symbol of his own spiritual and intellectual ideals, creating a one-sided fixation.

### [Miriam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/revolving_lights_se/characters/miriam)

_psychological_

Michael is obsessively drawn to Miriam, seeing her as a symbol of his own spiritual and intellectual ideals, creating a one-sided fixation.

## In the story

### [Revolving Lights](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/revolving_lights_se/chapters/revolving-lights)

Walks Miriam home and engages in conversation about the lecture.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/revolving_lights_se/chapters/ii)

Orders tea and lemonade at the café, showing his impatience and lack of awareness of the social tension; his presence is a focal point of Miriam's discomfort.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/revolving_lights_se/characters/michael_shatov
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/revolving_lights_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/revolving_lights_se/characters