Gretel
Gretel is the poem's speaker. She is also the protagonist of the fairytale "Hansel and Gretel," and the poem imagines her psychological state years after the conclusion of the tale. Glück portrays her as traumatized, following her and her brother's experience being taken captive by a witch. She is even more traumatized after killing the witch by locking her in an oven. Even though she now lives in safety with her father and her brother, she feels vulnerable and lonely, and experiences flashbacks that make past dangers seem ever-present. To make matters worse, she feels as if her brother has forgotten her, and has forgotten their shared past, leaving her totally alone.
Father
The speaker mentions her father only in passing, to explain that she lives in his house and that he keeps harm at bay. Still, his attempts to keep his children safe feel insufficient to her, and his protection does little to alleviate his daughter's emotional trauma. In the tale "Hansel and Gretel," the two children are abandoned and left in harm's way by their reluctant father at the behest of his wife. While Glück doesn't bring that backstory up explicitly, she suggests that the father has failed to adequately care for his daughter.
Hansel
Hansel is Gretel's brother. In the story "Hansel and Gretel," he is with her during their odyssey in the woods and at the witch's house, and the witch plans to kill and eat him. Gretel saves his life by killing the witch. In "Gretel in Darkness," Hansel seems to have forgotten or repressed these upsetting memories. He is uninterested in discussing the past with his sister, and doesn't offer her comfort. Gretel suspects that he plans to abandon her or would have done so in the past had he been able.
The Witch
The witch was Gretel's nemesis during her life. Now that she is dead at Gretel's hands, she continues to preoccupy Gretel's thoughts. In the original story "Hansel and Gretel," the witch lives in a house made of candy inside of a forest—details Glück references—until Gretel burns her in an oven. Now, Gretel's mind is filled with images of her screams, her house, and the surrounding forest.
