Max
The seventy-year-old patriarch of the family, Max is the father of Teddy, Lenny and Joey by his late wife Jessie, and he is the brother of Sam. He fondly recalls his days as a butcher and his troublesome youth alongside his accomplice MacGregor. The horse track was also once a favorite place of his, and he prides himself on his ability to tell a good beast by smell. He feeds the family and provides for them, but does not make much money. He often speaks of his deceased wife, sometimes in glowing terms and sometimes in critical ones. Max is aggressive towards his sons and brother and is constantly dismissive of them. He is concerned with his virility but is still an impassioned and irascible man.
Lenny
A man in his early thirties and the middle son of Max. He apparently works as a pimp, arranging prostitutes for his supposedly distinguished clientele. Lenny is intelligent and surprisingly articulate but often brutally violent and conniving, exerting a degree of control over his family and others.
Sam
The sixty-three-year-old brother of Max and a chauffeur, supposedly the best in the business. Sam is rather effeminate and often the subject of his brother's contempt and derision, of which he takes little notice. Sam possesses a secret which he reveals at the end of the play: Max’s wife Jessie fooled around with his friend MacGregor in the back of Sam’s car. Sam is the only character to express disapproval of the plan for Ruth to stay; his traditional morality leads him to protest that she is Teddy’s wife and should not do it.
Joey
A man in his middle twenties and the youngest son of Max. He works in demolition during the day but regularly trains to be a boxer. Joey is portrayed as unintelligent and alternately childlike and brutish, contributing little in conversation.
Teddy
A man in his middle thirties and the eldest son of Max as well as the husband of Ruth. He is an expatriate to America, where he lives with his family of three sons, just like that of his father, and works as a professor of philosophy at a university. He claims to love his family but also expresses some ambivalence towards them. He was however, Jessie’s favorite son, according to Sam. Teddy is a logical, practical, generally emotionless figure who does little to intervene in his wife’s behavior with his brother. He only half-grudgingly leaves her to return to America, a place he loves for its cleanliness and the orderliness of his university life.
Ruth
A woman in her early thirties and the wife of Teddy. She has a mysterious past which she never truly divulges, instead preferring to conceal her darker aspects. Ruth is a complex character, adopting the roles of both manipulator and exploited victim at various times.
MacGregor
An old friend of Max’s who is now deceased. MacGregor was strong, masculine, and silent. He slept with Jessie in Sam’s car.
Jessie
Max’s wife and the boys’ mother, she has already died when the events of the play take place and is not seen onstage. Nevertheless, she looms large as a maternal figure. Max in turn complains about and praises her while the sons remember her fondly. She had an affair with MacGregor.
