Robyn Penrose
Robyn Penrose is the protagonist of the story. She is a young woman in her early thirties, who occupies a position of a lecturer in English Literature and Women’s Studies at the University of Rummidge. She is a great specialist in an industrial novel, a feminist (at least she like to think that she is) and just an attractive woman. She is undeniably active, hard-working and creative personality, but still she is quite arrogant. After being appointed as a “shadow” at Pringle’s, she realizes that there are many intelligent people, who have never heard about semiotics, metonymy, metaphors, industrial novels and post-structuralism. She also realizes that she often behaves as a genuine snob. However, Robyn is a natural teacher, who has a sense of the good and the bad and is capable of compassion.
Victor Wilcox
Victor Wilcox is the antagonist of the story, who is a round and dynamic character. He is 46 years old, married and has three children. Being the only one breadwinner, he is head over heels in work. Working a Managing Director at Pringle’s, he suffers from constant pressure. His once loved wife seems to him to be unintelligent and shallow, his elder son is a complete disappointment for him and his younger children don’t make his life easier. In spite of the fact that he is a small man, “a dwarf” as he describes himself, he could be really aggressive and frightening. But he also has a lot of positive traits. Victor is genuinely responsible, hard-working and even wants to change. After a meeting with Robyn, he starts reading books, gaining new knowledge and broadening his worldview. He is also strong-willed, for his dismissal doesn’t break him.
Marjorie Florence
Marjorie Florence is Victor’s wife. She is simple, unintelligent, but very kind and compassionate woman. She takes care about her husband, their children and her father-in-low.
Raymond
Raymond is an elder son of Victor. He is 22 years old and a complete opposite of his father. Raymond drops out of a college and spends his time playing guitar and driving his father crazy. However, he is also a dynamic character. Raymond finds an interesting job which suits him perfectly well and decides to move out by the end of the novel.
Sandra
Sandra is Victor’s daughter. She is a typical modern girl, who is interested in fashion and relationships with boys more than A-grades. She wants to be a hairstylist.
Gary
Gary is the youngest son of Victor.
Charles
Charles is Robyn’s long-term boyfriend. He is also a college teacher, an intellectual and a feminist. Unlike Robyn, he can’t be satisfied with constant lack of money. It suited him well when he was a teenager, but not now. He is portrayed as an ideal man at the beginning of the story, but later on he also reveals his faults. Charles thinks that he and Robyn are destined to end up married, but every time he brings up a question of their marriage, Robyn rejects his proposals.
Brian Everthorpe
Brian Everthorpe is a Marketing Director at Pringle’s. In spite of the fact that he seems to be interested only in “tits and bums”, he is not that dim-witted. Sensing that his days at Pringle’s might be coming to the end, he starts his own business. Unlike diligent and hard-working Victor, Brian doesn’t see any need to put so many efforts in a ruining business. He also allows himself to have guilty pleasures. For instance, he makes passes at any woman he sees and sleeps with Shirley.
Shirley
Shirley is Victor’s secretary.
Penny Black
Penny Black is Robyn’s friend. She is also a feminist.
Philip Swallow
Philip Swallow is a dean of the Arts Faculty and Robyn’s boss. He has to deal with constant strikes and lack of money.
Mario Russel
Mario Russel is Robyn’s student.
Basil
Basil is Robyn’s sibling. In spite of the fact that he graduates from Oxford and is also expected to build a wonderful academic career, he prefers an office in the City to constant researches. Due to different worldviews, he and Robyn are not very close.
Debbie
Debbie is Basil’s short-term girlfriend. She also works in the financial sphere, earning a lot of money. In spite of the fact that Robyn believes that she is a feminist and says that she is not a snob, she notices that Debbie is a working-class girl and is secretly happy when her brother calls Debbie “frightfully common little thing”. Charles moves in with Debbie, but they break apart later.
Old Wilcox
Old Wilcox is Victor’s father. He is an old widower, who constantly muses over old days.
