# Effie — Short Fiction character guide

> Effie in Short Fiction by Voltairine de Cleyre.

**Role:** major

**First appearance:** 0000-a-rocket-of-iron

## Snapshot

Starving in a London garret, Effie clings to her baby's one white dress while her sponging husband pawns everything else for tea guests.

## Who they are

Effie survives at the edge of starvation, married to a feckless man she calls the creeper, who borrows shillings and invites acquaintances to tea he cannot provide. When he proposes pawning the baby's only dress, she refuses — the one line she will not cross — and instead walks the surging London streets with the child, crushing back tears. Her mute endurance draws the notice of a dark Italian visitor whose serious eyes measure her, pulling her unwittingly toward the world of anarchist protest and the tortured prisoners of Montjuich.

## Relationships

### [David](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_55_se/characters/david)

_romantic_

David and Effie share a deeply intimate and possibly obsessive romantic bond, with the highest interaction count suggesting a central, consuming relationship.

### [Angiolillo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_55_se/characters/angiolillo)

_psychological_

Angiolillo's repeated interactions with Effie, though few, imply a manipulative or obsessive fixation.

### [Angiolillo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_55_se/characters/angiolillo)

_psychological_

Angiolillo's repeated interactions with Effie, though few, imply a manipulative or obsessive fixation.

## In the story

### [The Heart of Angiolillo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_55_se/chapters/the-heart-of-angiolillo)

The central figure of the chapter, a Scottish peasant woman who loved the wrong man, endured poverty and exploitation, and died forgotten after a life of sacrifice.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_55_se/chapters/i)

The washerwoman who lives at the end of the alley; she is young but worn, works long hours, and cares for her consumptive husband.

### [To Strive and Fail](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_55_se/chapters/to-strive-and-fail)

The protagonist, a woman who struggles to play the zither and feels she will never capture the music within her.

### [Some Nihilists I Have Met](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_55_se/chapters/some-nihilists-i-have-met)

M.'s wife, who left him after two years of marriage to live alone and be free; she has since shed her nihilistic ideas but remains attractive and interesting.

### [Between the Living and the Dead](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_55_se/chapters/between-the-living-and-the-dead)

The narrator, a woman recovering from illness, who observes the man and child from her window.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_55_se/characters/effie
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_55_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_55_se/characters