Character guide

Jefferson Campbell

major

Also known as Dr. Jefferson Campbell, Jeff Campbell, Jeff, Dr. Jeff, Dr. Campbell

Jefferson Campbell is a rising physician in Bridgepoint, respected for his careful mind and his earnest, almost stubborn goodness. He is drawn to Melanctha Herbert precisely where she is most ungovernable — her restless seeking, her sudden rages, her hunger for a feeling she cannot name. His effort to reason her into peace becomes the central struggle of the middle of the book, and his bewilderment exposes how little his training has prepared him for the tangle of love.

Melanctha Herbert

major

Also known as Melanctha, Miss Melanctha

Melanctha Herbert grows up unloved and unlovable in her own memory, closer in temper to her black, angry father than to her sweet, wandering mother. She has a break-neck courage and a tongue that can be nasty, and she is always seeking peace and quiet while only finding new ways to get excited. Her restless loving — of Rose, of Jane, of Jeff — drives the long middle of the book, where her desire to be truly known keeps colliding with her inability to rest.

Anna Federner

major

Also known as the good Anna, Anna, Poor Anna

The good Anna runs Miss Mathilda's household for five years, ruling kitchen and street with a strained voice, a glittering eye, and the friendship of every policeman on the beat. She is worn thin by under-servants, by Miss Mathilda's faint-hearted refusal to scold, and by her own rigid sense of how things ought to be. Her arduous, troubled life — its small tyrannies and its deep devotions — carries the first of Stein's three lives and sets the book's tone of patient, unglamorous endurance.

Lena Mainz

major

Also known as Lena, the Gentle Lena, poor Lena

Lena Mainz works as a servant in Bridgepoint, minding a small child in the park on sunny afternoons while the quicker Irish girls tease her into helpless confusion. Her flat chest, forward-falling shoulders, and wondrous black eyebrows mark her as one of the patient, enduring working women, and her rare feeling shows most in the earth-pure stillness of her face. Her docility — the very quality that makes her beloved and easily led — shapes the third life, where gentleness is both her grace and her fate.

Jane Harden

supporting

Also known as Jane

Jane Harden moves through Melanctha's early years as a mentor in experience rather than virtue, offering the restless girl a knowledge of the world that her mother and father never could. She is sharp where Miss Mary Wadsmith is docile, and her quick, careless authority — the little Jane who gives unpleasant orders — shows how power passes between women in these households. Her influence on Melanctha's youth matters because it plants the hunger for feeling that will govern everything Melanctha does later.

Rose Johnson

supporting

Also known as Rose

Rose Johnson married Sam Johnson, a decent deck hand, and considers herself no common nigger because white folks raised her — though her training made habits, not nature. She laughs when happy and grumbles when troubled, but never with the wide, abandoned laughter of negro sunshine, and she has the simple, promiscuous immorality of the black people. Why the subtle, half-white Melanctha demeans herself in service to this coarse, childlike Rose is one of the book's quiet puzzles, and Rose's blunt refusal to take Melanctha's despair seriously sharpens the loneliness at the heart of the middle lives.

Herman Kreder

supporting

Also known as Herman, old Kreder

Herman Kreder is a German tailor in Bridgepoint who marries Lena, the sweet, patient servant girl brought over from Germany. Where Lena is yielding and eager to please, Herman is stiff, anxious about appearances, and increasingly determined to govern every detail of their household. His need for control turns what might have been a tender match into a quiet, grinding struggle, and his treatment of Lena becomes the story's central study of how ordinary domestic power can wear a person down.

Mrs. Lehntman

supporting

Also known as the widow Mrs. Lehntman

Mrs. Lehntman is a widow and midwife in Bridgepoint whose warmth and easy generosity make her irresistible to the loyal Anna, who is soon entirely subdued by her sympathetic charm. She takes in young girls in trouble, cares for them in secret, and lets them pay her back slowly — a kindness that also keeps her perpetually short of money and quietly dependent on Anna's savings. Through her, Anna's world widens and her health begins to fail, making Mrs. Lehntman the story's most seductive and most costly attachment.

Jem Richards

supporting

Also known as Jem

Jem Richards is a gambler in Bridgepoint who takes up with Melanctha Herbert after her long, exhausting affair with Jeff Campbell. Where Jeff was earnest and analytical, Jem is careless, restless, and casually unkind — drawn to Melanctha's intensity but unwilling to give her the steadiness she keeps seeking. He matters because he exposes the pattern in Melanctha's life: she runs toward excitement and away from peace, and Jem is the man who makes that contradiction most painfully visible.

Sam Johnson

minor

Also known as Sam

Rose's husband, a hardworking but passive man.

Miss Mary Wadsmith

supporting

Also known as Mary, Miss Mary, Mary Wadsmith

Miss Mary Wadsmith is the wealthy elderly woman Anna serves for years in Bridgepoint, a position Anna holds with fierce loyalty and pride. During the last years with her Miss Mary, Anna's health grows steadily worse, and it is through Mrs. Lehntman that Anna eventually meets Dr. Shonjen and must leave the household. Miss Mary matters because she represents the stable, cherished world Anna loses — the place Anna measures every later job against, and the reason her later restlessness feels like grief.

Julia Lehntman

minor

Also known as Julia

Mrs. Lehntman's daughter, a flighty young woman.

Molly

minor

Also known as a melancholy Molly, Irish Mary

An Irish servant girl who works with Anna.

Mrs. Drehten

minor

Also known as good Mrs. Drehten

A German woman who boards with Anna and later becomes her companion.

Sallie

minor

Also known as Sally, little Sally

A young girl who works as a servant in the Wadsmith household.

Peter

minor

Also known as this Peter

A young man who briefly courts Melanctha.

James Herbert

minor

Also known as Herbert

Melanctha's father, a black man who abandons the family.

Mathilda Haydon

minor

Also known as Mathilda

Anna's cousin, a dull, fat girl who comes to live with her.

Baby

minor

Also known as old Baby, little Baby

Anna's blind, elderly dog, whom she dotes on.

Mrs. Haydon

minor

Also known as poor Mrs. Haydon

Anna's first mistress, a kind but ineffectual woman.

Old Katie

minor

Also known as Katy, old Katy

An elderly German woman who works as a servant.

Miss Annie

minor

A young woman who works as a servant in the Wadsmith house.

Miss Jane

minor

Also known as little Jane, Jane

A young girl who is a friend of the Wadsmith family.

John

minor

Also known as the good John

A servant who works for Mrs. Lehntman.

Mrs. Aldrich

minor

Also known as Aldrich

A wealthy woman who employs Anna briefly.

Sis

minor

A young black girl who works as a servant.

Mrs. Federner

minor

Anna's mother, a poor German widow.

Old Mr. Kreder

minor

Also known as Mr. Kreder

Herman's father, a strict German tailor.

Dr. Shonjen

minor

Also known as jolly Dr. Shonjen

A jovial doctor who treats Anna in her final illness.

Rags

minor

Also known as little Rags, jolly little Rags

A small, lively dog owned by Mrs. Lehntman.

Charley

minor

A young man who works as a servant.

Mr. Haydon

minor

Mrs. Haydon's husband, a shadowy figure.

Willie

minor

A young boy who works as a servant.

Bertha Haydon

minor

Also known as Bertha

Mrs. Haydon's daughter, a sickly child.

Lily

minor

A young girl who works as a servant.

Lizzie

minor

Also known as the pretty, cheerful Lizzie

A cheerful servant girl who works with Anna.

Aunt Mathilda

minor

Also known as Mathilda

Anna's aunt, who helps raise her.