# Short Fiction — Character guide

> Key figures in Short Fiction by Nella Larsen.

- [Irene Redfield](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_39_se/characters/irene_redfield.md): Irene Redfield moves through 1920s Harlem as a woman of poise, hosting the Negro Welfare League dance and managing a household with two sons and a restless doctor husband. Yet her composure hides a deep need for security
- [Clare Kendry](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_39_se/characters/clare_kendry.md): Clare Kendry lives as a white man's wife in Chicago, but her letters to Irene pulse with a yearning for 'my own people' and a taste for risk that unsettles everyone around her. Exquisite and self-absorbed, she wants her 
- [Brian Redfield](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_39_se/characters/brian_redfield.md): Brian Redfield treats the sick of Harlem but confesses he hates the filthy stairwells and meddling families, and a restless craving for somewhere else flickers beneath his mocking humor. Irene fears that old unhappiness 
- [Gertrude Martin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_39_se/characters/gertrude_martin.md): Gertrude Martin once shared Irene and Clare's girlhood, but marriage to Fred, a white meat-market owner, has left her broad, prematurely aged, and consumed by fear of racial 'throwback.' She nods in fervent agreement whe
- [Hugh Wentworth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_39_se/characters/hugh_wentworth.md): Hugh Wentworth moves easily among Irene's circle, smoking and teasing, alert to the racial dynamics everyone else pretends not to notice. His friendship with Irene rests on a shared sincerity, yet his questions about Cla
- [John Bellew](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_39_se/characters/john_bellew.md): John Bellew keeps Clare in comfort and calls her his 'Nig,' a joke whose cruelty he cannot see because he believes her white. His presence dictates the rhythm of Clare's stolen visits uptown, and his looming return to Ne
- [Felise Freeland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_39_se/characters/felise_freeland.md): Felise Freeland moves through Harlem's social world with an unguarded liveliness that makes her gatherings the place where old ties get rekindled, whether anyone wants them to or not. Her friendship with Irene sits besid
- [Theodore](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_39_se/characters/theodore.md): Irene and Brian's younger son, a schoolboy.
- [Zulena](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_39_se/characters/zulena.md): A maid in the Redfield household.
- [Jack](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_39_se/characters/jack.md): A minor acquaintance at parties, possibly a friend of Clare.
- [Obadiah](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_39_se/characters/obadiah.md): A dialect-speaking character in the 'Sanctuary' section.
- [Junior](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_39_se/characters/junior.md): Irene and Brian's older son, a schoolboy.
- [Jim Hammer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_39_se/characters/jim_hammer.md): A minor character at social events, possibly a friend of Hugh.
- [Margaret Hammer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_39_se/characters/margaret_hammer.md): A woman mentioned at a party, possibly Jim Hammer's wife.

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