Margaret Lea
Margaret Lea has a job in her father’s second-hand bookshop. She prefers to read works of Charles Dickens and the Bronte sisters. Margaret immediately agrees to write a biography for Vida Winter. As the book narrates, Margaret was not born alone and in fact had a twin sibling who died. Margaret suffers from being alone without her sister. She understands Vida’s loneliness, because Vida also had two sisters (Emmeline and Adeline March). As to her inner world, Margaret is a kind, talented and intelligent character, because she helps to write Vida’s story life and unravels all her secrets.
Vida Winter
Vida Winter is not one of those, who can easily get lost in the crowd. She has an appearance of the ancient queen, witch or goddess. Vida is sitting in the armchair by the fireplace as on the throne, surrounded by the velvet cushions of various shades of red. In addition to being a charming old woman, Vida is also a wonderful writer. According to the novel, Vida loved her twin sisters and tried to defend from cruelty. Vida’s life story is very complicated, but her will power helps to cope with troubles. At the beginning she has no name and everyone refers to her as “Shadow” because as a ghost she haunts the house. The only two people who know about her are the Missus and John Digence who found her, as a baby, near Angelfield House. She is very similar to the two twins. They understand that the baby has to be related to Emmeline and Adeline and that she is Charlie’s daughter. Shadow acts like a “good” ghost, helping the Missus and John Digence and preventing Adeline to hurt Emmeline. Vida is the name she decides for herself after Angelfield is destroyed
Isabelle Angelfield
Isabelle is a mother of Adeline and Emmeline. It is hard to talk about this woman. Her upbringing had a great influence on her future. Since she grew up without maternal care, Isabelle does not care about her daughters. She cannot even distinguish who is Emmeline and who is Adeline. Love affair with her brother ends badly and she is taken to the psychiatric hospital.
Charlie Angelfield
Charlie is Isabelle’s brother, who is a mentally unbalanced person, like everybody of the Angelfield family. He is inclined to violence and sadism. Charlie loves his sister and he is in a sexual relationship with Isabelle. He yearns to Isabelle after her death. He commits suicide in the very place they used to meet.
Emmeline and Adeline March
These girls are twin sisters and the leading characters of the novel. Twins are together from their childhood and speak their own language. Born out of incest, they inherit the most terrible features of their family. Emmeline lags behind in development, steals all the glittering things, suffers from gluttony and she is passive. Adeline is a sadist and her main trait is aggression. She even beats her sister. She is jealous of Emmeline’s son and arranges a fire to kill him but instead, it’s one of the twins that perishes. It is not clear which of the two sisters dies.
John Digence
John is a gardener at the Angelfield estate. He is a good man, who brings twin sisters up together with the Missus. Unfortunately, he is killed by Adeline March.
The Missus
She is a housekeeper in the Angelfield family. This woman is the second mother of Emmeline and Adeline March because she is raising them as her own children. The Missus and the gardener are a symbol of balance against the chaos of the house.
Hester Barrow
Hester is the governess of twin sisters, hired when Isabelle is sent to the asylum. She is a clever, active and rational young woman and brings order in Angelfield house. The two sisters follow her rules and thanks to her the house is repaired. She even starts a study with Dr.Maudsley on twins’ behavior but she leaves when she falls in love with the doctor and his wife finds out the truth about their relationship.
Dr. Maudsley
He is a city doctor, who is trying to help twin sisters. Dr. Maudsley is a clever and energetic person. When his wife passes away, he marries Hester and they write and publish scientific works and articles.
Moira Lea
She is Margaret’s sister. Her ghostly presence can be felt all through the book and only at the end they are allowed to spend some time together
Arelius Love
He is Emmeline’s son. During the fire, he is saved by Vida and brought up by Mrs. Love. He tries to discover the real identity of her mother and why she abandoned him.
Karen Proctor.
She is Arelius’s sister. At the end, thanks to Margaret, the two find out Ambrose was their father. He knew Emmeline when working at Angelfied and then, after he was sent away from the house, he married another woman of the village.
