Character guide

William Tully

major

Also known as William, Tully, William the People

For twenty-three years William Tully lived under his mother's thumb, his wages annexed each Saturday, his reading confined to Snappy Bits, his opinions to nobody's concern. Her sudden death leaves him money, freedom, and no idea what to do with either—until Faraday's socialist circles and Griselda's suffragette fire give his drifting life a shape. He matters because his small, unheroic self is exactly what the war will test: a man who sneered at patriotism learning, under a German officer's jeer, what love of country feels like.

Griselda Tully

major

Also known as Griselda Watkins, Griselda

Griselda Watkins has braved official ridicule before, so when she and William are seized in the Ardennes and paraded before a grinning German captain, she meets it with silence rather than the glib speeches William expects. Her courage is the harder kind—wordless, watchful, holding steady while her husband trembles. She matters because William's love for her is the first thing that makes him want to be a man rather than a cipher, and because her ordeal sharpens his hatred of the enemy into purpose.

Faraday

supporting

Faraday listens to William's halting confession across a ledger with repeated, noncommittal 'Indeed!'s, visibly wishing the episode over—yet he is the one who names William's freedom back to him and offers an evening of 'views.' His chin-on-hand deliberation and hint of mystery suggest a man accustomed to sizing up recruits for a cause. He matters because he is the door through which William first walks out of clerkdom into the socialist circles where he meets Griselda.

Heinz

supporting

Heinz is the subordinate who collars William and drags him before his amused captain, finding genuine entertainment in two English newlyweds ignorant of the war. His knuckles between shirt and skin, his grin at their confusion, embody the casual contempt of conquerors—and the jeer that saves William's life wounds him more than the threat of death. He matters because he forces William to feel, for the first time, the stirrings of nationality he had spent years denying.

Edith Haynes

supporting

Also known as Haynes, XIV Edith Haynes

Edith Haynes has not spent her life in the atmosphere of Internationalism, and she is honest enough not to pretend impartiality about the war's causes. She hears William quote Faraday and Snowden as if reciting a faith he can no longer hold, and watches him grope toward rights and wrongs he never before cared to examine. She matters because she is the witness to his conversion—the friend who sees a shattered clerk become a man hunting for a purpose worth enlisting in.

Wright

minor

An acquaintance in the socialist movement.

Madame Peys

minor

Also known as Madame

A Belgian woman encountered during the war.

Edwardes

minor

A colleague or associate in William's circle.

The Priest

minor

A clergyman who appears in a scene.

Mrs. Jay-Blenkinsop

minor

Also known as Jay - Blenkinsop

Wife of Edgar Jay-Blenkinsop, a minor character.

The Suffragette

minor

A generic suffragette figure in the movement.

The German

minor

Also known as the unconscious German

An unnamed German soldier encountered during the war.

Philippe

minor

A Belgian or French character met during the war.

Edgar Jay-Blenkinsop

minor

Also known as Jay - Blenkinsop

A minor character, possibly a neighbor or acquaintance.

Madame Amberg

minor

Also known as Madame

A woman encountered during the war.

The Stationmaster

minor

A railway official who appears briefly.