Narrator
The story's unnamed narrator is the protagonist. After her winter quilt makes an elephant shape on her wall, the narrator recounts the time she went as a girl to stay with her mother's adopted sister, Begum Jaan. While sleeping in the same room as Begum Jaan and her masseuse, the narrator hears and sees the two having sex beneath a quilt. The narrator does not know about sex and so isn't sure what to make of the shaking quilt and slurping sounds. Begum Jaan molests the narrator when the masseuse is away for the night, causing the narrator to feel an unnameable terror around Begum Jaan.
Begum Jaan
Begum Jaan in the narrator’s aunt and the story's primary antagonist. A very beautiful woman who is married to a nawab (a Muslim nobleman), Begum Jaan finds that her husband has no interest in her and prefers to spend time behind closed doors with young men. To satisfy her sexual needs, Begum Jaan hires Rabbu, a masseuse, and pursues a clandestine lesbian relationship with her. Begum Jaan turns her attention to the child narrator when Rabbu goes away to visit her son, seeing the narrator as a sexual object to replace Rabbu.
Nawab Sahib
Nawab Sahib is Begum Jaan’s husband. As a Muslim nobleman, he is head of a household full of servants and guests. He has a public reputation for being virtuous, but it is heavily implied that the nawab maintains sexual relationships with the various young male students who come to stay with him. Preferring the company of these young men, he ignores his wife's sexual needs and sequesters her to a section of the house. Chughtai implies that the nawab molested Rabbu's son, causing the boy to flee the house and refuse to ever return.
Rabbu
Rabbu is Begum Jaan’s masseuse and paid lover. Rabbu massages Begum Jaan constantly and sleeps next to her; the narrator hears and sees the two women having sex. Rabbu's subservient position, darker skin, and smallpox scars signal that she is of a lower social class than Begum Jaan. Rabbu upsets Begum Jaan when she leaves the house to visit her son, who refuses to come to the nawab's home.
Amma
Amma (Urdu for "mother") is the narrator's mother. Because the narrator gets into fights with her brothers and his friends, Amma leaves the narrator to stay with Begum Jaan for a week while Amma takes a trip to the city of Agra. When Begum Jaan molests the narrator, the narrator wishes for her mother's return.
Rabbu's Son
Rabbu's son is a young man. After an undisclosed incident with the nawab, he refuses to come to the nawab's house, even to visit his mother. Chughtai implies that Begum Jaan and her husband tried to buy the boy's loyalty by giving him clothes, gifts, and a shop in town, but the boy was presumably molested by the nawab and so refuses to return.
