Characters
- Major Henry Scobie – Longtime police inspector and protagonist of the novel.
- Louise Scobie – Henry's devout Catholic wife.
- Catherine Scobie – Deceased daughter of Henry and Louise.
- Ali – Scobie's long-time African servant.
- Edward Wilson – New inspector who secretely spies on the actions of Major Scobie, and is in love with Louise.
- Harris – Housemate to Wilson
- "Dicky" Pemberton – Inspector who commits suicide due to his large debt to Yusef.
- Helen Rolt – Newly arriving widow who becomes Scobie's mistress.
- Yusef – Syrian local black marketeer who blackmails Scobie after finding a letter in which he expresses his love for Helen.
- Tallit – Catholic Syrian who is the main competitor to Yusef.
- Father Rank – Local Catholic priest.
- Father Clay – Catholic priest at Bamba who reads about saints.
Read more about this topic: The Heart Of The Matter
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“Hemingway was a prisoner of his style. No one can talk like the characters in Hemingway except the characters in Hemingway. His style in the wildest sense finally killed him.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Of all the characters I have known, perhaps Walden wears best, and best preserves its purity. Many men have been likened to it, but few deserve that honor. Though the woodchoppers have laid bare first this shore and then that, and the Irish have built their sties by it, and the railroad has infringed on its border, and the ice-men have skimmed it once, it is itself unchanged, the same water which my youthful eyes fell on; all the change is in me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)