Rufus Scott
Rufus Scott is a young Black jazz drummer who, when the novel opens, is wandering the streets of New York in despair over the demise of his tumultuous relationship with Leona. He suffers deeply over his confusion and guilt over falling in love with a white woman, which leads him to abandon his music, begin treating Leona cruelly, descend into paranoia, and eventually commit suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge.
Leona
Leona is a young white woman from the South who moves to New York to escape the sad situation of her life—her husband left her because she drank too much, and she lost her child because she was an unfit mother. She is sweet and vulnerable, and Rufus is drawn to her despite himself. Rufus's treatment of her leads her to madness, and she is institutionalized and eventually taken back to the South by her brother.
Vivaldo
Vivaldo is a young white man, living in the Village and working on his novel. Eric describes him as "very slim, very lean" with a quality of "investigating, weighing, watching, his eyes hiding more than they revealed" (249). From a working-class, rough neighborhood, he now embraces the life of an artist and bohemian. He and Rufus were close friends, and Rufus's death hits him hard; he feels adrift and confused, as well as guilty that he could have done something to save his friend. He is very introspective and emotional, and finds it hard to understand why Ida, his lover, is so bothered by their racial differences.
Ida Scott
Ida is Rufus's younger sister, who is very beautiful, "fairly tall, sturdy" with "large, intelligent, wary" eyes (98). She moves to the Village after Rufus dies and gets a job as a waitress, but soon pursues a singing career; in her first public appearance she has a "quality so mysteriously and implacably egocentric that no one has ever been able to name it" (253). She is ambitious, doing whatever she needs to to succeed, and her attitude is "haughty and free" (143). Like her brother, she resents white people, and she blames them for Rufus's death. She loves Vivaldo but is confused and bothered by the interracial nature of their relationship, critiquing it from every angle.
Jane
Jane is one of Vivaldo's lovers, whom Rufus sees as "too old" for his friend, as "combative and dirty" with "gray hair [that] was never combed" (31). She is a painter and occasionally successful. She likes to pique and provoke, and Rufus cannot stand her even though Vivaldo often returned to her because she knew what she was doing.
Eric
Eric is a young white man with flaming red hair from a wealthy family in Alabama. His sexuality and progressivism did not endear him to his conservative family, and he moved to New York to work on Broadway. There he fell in love with Rufus, but after Rufus shunned him, he moved to France. He confronted himself and his past, interrogated his desires and choices, and subsequently grew enough as a person to engage in a healthy relationship with Yves. Back in New York to embark on the next stage of his career, though, he has an affair with Cass, falls for Vivaldo, and tries to further understand the nature of suffering.
Yves
Yves is Eric's French boyfriend. He is young, handsome, vivacious, and lithe in form, "long and lean, like a stalking cat" (210). He hustled before he met Eric, but realized that with Eric he could truly be himself and experience love in a real way. He decides to join Eric in New York.
Cass Silenski
Cass is the wife of Richard and mother of Michael and Paul, as well as Rufus and Vivaldo's friend. She is white, and "came from New England, of plain old American stock" (36). She becomes disaffected with her marriage, ruing Richard's selling out and wanting to experience a new sort of desire. She feels like "a housekeeper" (274) and thinks Richard does not notice her. She has an affair with Eric because she admires his sense of self, something she does not see in Richard. At the end of the novel she confesses to Richard, but the future of their union is unclear.
Richard Silenski
Richard is Cass's husband and Michael and Paul's father. He publishes a novel, which is successful commercially but it is not particularly erudite. He is a jovial, boyish man who comes from a working-class family. He considers himself progressive, but occasionally displays subtly racist and misogynist views. He is shocked and wounded by Cass's confession of adultery.
Mr. Ellis
Ellis is a successful TV producer, a "short, square man with curly hair and boyish face" (160). He is confident, gregarious, and self-assured. He wants to work with Richard, but is also smitten by Ida and decides to help further her career. He and Ida become lovers, but even though he is interested in her, he also disrespects her.
Harold
A friend of Lorenzo's and Belle's, Harold is "older, lantern-jawed, with tortured lips" (303). He comes onto Vivaldo when they are high, but Vivaldo politely refuses him.
Lorenzo
He is a "Canadian-born poet... moon-faced, with much curly hair" (303) whom Vivaldo hangs out with one night.
Belle
Lorenzo's girlfriend, she is a "refugee from the Texas backwater, scissor-faced, with much straight hair, and a thumb-chewing giggle" (303).
Dick Lincoln
He is Jane's new boyfriend, whom Vivaldo sees as an "uptown, seersucker type, who probably worked in advertising" (297).
Loring Montgomery
Loring is Richard's editor.
Barbara Wales
She is a guest at Richard's book party.
Sydney Ingram
Sydney is a novelist at Richard's book party.
Grace and Henry
They are the Black cook and her handyman husband who worked for Eric's family. Eric felt his first sense of fatherly bonding as well as stirrings of physical affection for a man with Henry.
Madame Belet
She is Yves and Eric's French cook.
Paul and Michael
They are Richard and Cass's young children.
LeRoy
He is a Black teenage boy in Alabama with whom Eric has his first sexual encounter.
