# Victory — Character guide

> Key figures in Victory by Joseph Conrad.

- [Axel Heyst](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_se/characters/axel_heyst.md): Heyst is the last man on Samburan, a failed coaling-station where he keeps a blackboard's ghost company and reads his philosopher father's books by moonlight. Raised to despise action, he is courteous, self-contained, an
- [Lena](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_se/characters/lena.md): Lena has known only drudgery and men's casual cruelty, first in the Zangiacomo band and now as the woman Heyst brought away from Schomberg's hotel. She loves Heyst with a fierce, anxious devotion, yet senses the subtle d
- [Schomberg](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_se/characters/schomberg.md): Schomberg runs a respectable establishment built on gossip and table d'hôte dinners, but Heyst's quiet theft of the orchestra girl has left him obsessed and demoralized. He terrorizes his wife with poisoned glances, drin
- [Mr. Jones](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_se/characters/mr_jones.md): Mr. Jones moves through the world with the incurious stare of a spectre and the manners of a man who has never had to work. He keeps Ricardo close, tolerates a brutish third man only for utility, and treats violence as a
- [Martin Ricardo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_se/characters/martin_ricardo.md): Ricardo is the muscle and the cunning behind Mr. Jones, a man who has beaten a companion half to death and boasts of it with a lip-retracting smile. He studies Heyst's face for drink, fear, or surprise and finds none, wh
- [Davidson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_se/characters/davidson.md): Davidson's route is monotonous and his decks are empty of white company, so Heyst's occasional passage is a godsend he never charges for. He is curious, humane, and quietly loyal, the sort of man who goes ashore in the h
- [Wang](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_se/characters/wang.md): Wang keeps Heyst's bungalow running with meticulous calm, announcing that cups, plates, and forks are all 'plopel' even as he declares his intention to leave. He has quietly pocketed Heyst's revolver and cartridges, spoo
- [Morrison](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_se/characters/morrison.md): Heyst's former business partner who died after their coal venture failed.
- [Pedro](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_se/characters/pedro.md): Jones's brutish, ape-like henchman who serves as muscle.
- [Zangiacomo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_se/characters/zangiacomo.md): The tyrannical leader of the traveling ladies' orchestra where Lena performed.
- [Mrs. Zangiacomo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_se/characters/mrs_zangiacomo.md): Zangiacomo's wife who helps manage the orchestra girls.
- [Baron Heyst](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_se/characters/baron_heyst.md): Axel Heyst's deceased father, a Swedish philosopher who shaped his son's detachment.
- [Mr. Tesman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_se/characters/tesman.md): A merchant from Tesman Brothers who had dealings with Heyst.

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