Essay Questions

Is there a main character in The Waves? Justify your answer using information from the form.

Six main characters exist in the novel's world, and each of them chronicles the action in their own way. A seventh character's voice is absent; however, he is central to the advancement of the plot. Because each character keeps track of their life in a different way - Susan through logistics, Jinny through festivities, Bernard through phrases - and each of these metrics is contained in the novel, there is no one character around whom the novel centers.

Do the characters live according to only their predispositions, or do they follow their life paths based on a stronger compulsion?

We see from early on that characters carry emotions associated with their ideas of who they are. Louis is hurt by his lack of inherent Englishness, and Susan feels out of place. Some of the developments require time to pass. Jinny, for example, must wait until she is old enough to enter society to fully assume who she feels she is inside. Susan bides her time in a different way, hoping for the day when she can return to a rural life. The characters push back against the character to which they believe themselves to be typecast - even Bernard rebels against his interest in phrases - and this shows their active pursuit of their own choices, even when these decisions align with the ones they assumed themselves to have when younger.

Are the characters different for having known one another?

Yes. The characters track the action of the plot in their own ways, but we see their observations become aligned more and more with their lifelong friends as the novel progresses. They know what to expect from one another and thus are able to interpret their own existences from a place of surety. At times, the characters take each other for granted, but this allows them a safe place to rest as they grow. The absent character, Percival, reminds the readers that the characters have developed from their youthful solipsism while at school, even though their anxieties sometimes hinder true connection.