The Speaker
The speaker of this poem is a parish priest in a country village in England. The observation that his duty has ended is a reference to priestly responsibilities to provide care and comfort to a member of his congregation. Although the title implicates Felix as the main character of the poem, in reality the unnamed parish priest—generally assumed to be the poet himself, who also occupied the position of a priest at one point—assumes a co-equal status as the poem asks what the point is of Felix Randal’s suffering.
Felix Randal
It is believed that this poem is based on a true story. When Hopkins was serving his duty as a parish priest, a young member of his congregation named Felix Spencer died from tuberculosis. This poem sees Felix transformed into the semi-fictional titular character renamed Felix Randal. The story told by the priest is one in which a physically powerful farrier contracts tuberculosis and over the course of several agonizing months wastes away into a mere shell of himself before finally succumbing to death. This leads the priest to question why God would fit such unnecessary suffering into His grand plan. However, by the poem's end, the speaker finds some comfort in the increased closeness between himself and Felix. The poem ends on an image of Felix at the height of his power; the speaker does not find a justification for Felix's death, but he appears to relish the fact that Felix was once full of life, even if such is no longer true.
