Benny Profane
The novel's protagonist, Benny Profane, a discharged U.S. Navy sailor, is a "human yo-yo," and a self-proclaimed “schlemihl”—a Yiddish term for a bumbling, unfortunate fool. Lacking any ambition of his own, Profane is pulled through life by the likes of Rachel Owlglass, Paola Maijstral, and Herbert Stencil.
Herbert Stencil
The son of a British secret agent (Sidney Stencil), Herbert has devoted his life to investigating the unknown identity of “V.”—a woman (?) mentioned in his father’s journals. He is conspiracy-minded, and often distorts the facts to fit his own narrative, but, you know, he might actually be on to something…
V.
Who? An enigmatic woman, or rat, or country—or even just symbol—V. is the subject of Herbert Stencil's obsessive investigation. She takes many forms, and adopts multiple aliases—i.e. Victoria Wren, Vera Meroving, the Bad Priest, Veronica Manganese—and is a major character in the novel's historical chapters. She largely exists outside of the reader's field of vision, but consistently is associated with dreams and desire. Over the course of the novel, her body grows increasingly artificial, as she accumulates a glass eye, artificial limbs, and dentures.
Rachel Owlglass
Born into a well-off, strait-laced family from Long Island, Rachel Owlglass is the on-again, off-again lover of Benny Profane. Benny struggles to resist her advances: if he’s a yo-yo, then Rachel’s the hand. Despite an inclination for reckless driving, Rachel is one of the novel’s more upright characters: she regularly takes care of others, including her roommate Esther Harvitz, as well as Benny Profane.
Paola Maijstral
A young Maltese woman, working as a barmaid, Paola flees her husband to accompany Benny Profane and Pig Bodine to New York. Many men desire her—from Pig Bodine to Roony Winsome—but Paola has her eyes on the one man who does not: Benny Profane.
Pig Bodine
Former shipmate to Benny Profane, Pig Bodine is the epitome of debauchery. A Navy sailor, gone AWOL, Pig transmits erotica over military radio, is willing to radiate his testicles to save on condom expenses, and laughs a guttural “hyeugh, hyeugh” while doing it. He is one of Pynchon’s recurring characters, appearing also in Gravity’s Rainbow.
Esther Harvitz
Rachel Owlglass’s dependent roommate, Esther is often too passive (or is she?) to resist the demands of others: she’s stuck in an uncomfortable relationship with her plastic surgeon, Dr. Schoenmaker, who ultimately gets her pregnant; she’s pressured into getting an abortion by her ex-boyfriend, Slab.
Dr. Eigenvalue
A dentist, specializing in “psychodontia,” Dr. Eigenvalue regularly meets with Herbert Stencil to discuss V. (perhaps as Herbert’s therapist).
Dr. Schoenmaker
Schoenmaker is Esther’s plastic surgeon and sometimes-lover.
Roony Winsome
Gouverneur “Roony” Winsome is a record producer, buddy to McClintic Sphere, and the de facto proprietor to the Whole Sick Crew. Husband to Mafia Winsome, his marriage is deeply troubled—probably, in part, because he so desperately wants to sleep with Paola.
Mafia Winsome
A cult writer of 1000-page novels on “Heroic Love,” Mafia Winsome is the free-loving wife to Roony Winsome.
McClintic Sphere
A free-jazz saxophonist, McClintic Sphere is a lover to Ruby (i.e. Paola), who ruminates on the antipodes of humanity: the flip and the flop, the cool and the crazy.
Ruby
A young prostitute and lover to McClintic Sphere, Ruby is later revealed to be Paola Maijstral under an alias.
The Whole Sick Crew
A collective of New York artists: derivative, pretentious, and decadent. Members include Slab, Charisma, Fu, Fergus, Raoul, and Melvin, as well as the Winsome’s.
Father Fairing
A priest who, convinced that rats will inherit the Earth, makes his home in the New York sewers, attempting to convert the local rodent population to Christianity. Father Fairing was a priest in Malta in the early 1900s, and briefly served as an undercover informant to Sidney Stencil.
Josefina “Fina” Mendoza
Part of the Mendoza family—a Puerto Rican family that houses Benny Profane in New York—Fina is the protectress and “Den Mother” of a local New York gang, the Playboys (a gang that later subjects her to abuse). Fina tries to seduce Benny Profane, to no avail.
Angel Mendoza
Brother to Fina, Angel helps Benny Profane to secure employment as an alligator hunter in the New York sewer system.
Porpentine
A British secret agent, and co-worker of Sidney Stencil, Porpentine is assassinated in Cairo during the Fashoda Incident—his death is reconstructed by Herbert Stencil.
Eric Bongo-Shaftsbury
Bongo-Shaftsbury is a political rival to, and the killer of, Porpentine.
Victoria Wren
One of V.’s early aliases, Victoria Wren is a young woman, escorted by Porpentine in Cairo; she reappears in Florence, where she courts the Godolphins.
Evan Godolphin
Son to Hugh Godolphin, Evan meets V. in Florence, where they pretend to be lovers; in his later years, in Malta, he is care-taker to V. Evan’s narrative briefly intersects with the social world of the Whole Sick Crew: he was a debonair pilot in WWII, idolized by a young Dr. Schoenmaker. Evan’s facial scarring after a severe crash is what inspired Schoenmaker to study plastic surgery.
Hugh Godolphin
A adventurer and explorer, Hugh Godolphin appears in both Florence and South Africa, where he talks with V. (i.e. Victoria and Vera), about Vheissu: a fabled city, and symbolically significant to his understanding of humanity.
Signor Mantissa
An Italian hustler, Mantissa attempts to steal Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus; he is an old friend of Hugh Godolphin.
The Gaucho
The leader of the Figli di Machiavelli, a Venezuelan rebel group in Florence, the Gaucho is hired to play the “strongman” in Mantissa’s burglary plot.
Kurt Mondaugen
A German engineer, Mondaugen researches atmospheric radio disturbances while under siege in South Africa, during the Bondelswaartz Rebellion. Over time, he enters a scurvy-induced delirium, in which he takes on the dreams of his sadistic host: Foppl.
Vera Meroving
A later alias for V., and a wife to Lieutenant Weissman, Vera Meroving is one of the expatriates taking refuge in Foppl’s mansion. She misleads Hugh Godolphin into thinking Kurt Mondaugen is his son.
Foppl
A former German soldier, now a South African landowner, Foppl is trapped in the gross nostalgia of his time spent killing and plundering during the Herero Genocide.
Fausto Maijstral (Jr.)
Father to Paola Maijstral, Fausto is a poet who records his experiences living in Malta during WWII, and the subsequent bombardment of the island. He is thought to be an important source for Herbert Stencil’s investigation.
Elena Xemxi
The mother of Paola Maijstral, and wife to Fausto Maijstral.
Father Avalanche
The successor to Father Fairing, Father Avalanche advises Fausto Majistral and Elena Xemxi in Malta; he later helps Herbert Stencil investigate V.
The Bad Priest
V.'s final disguise, with a wig, glass eye, and fake foot, The Bad Priest dissuades Elena Xemxi from marrying Fausto Maijstral, and even discourages Elena from carrying Paola to term. The Bad Priest dies, crushed under a bombed cellar.
Mélanie l’Heuremaudit
A fifteen-year-old ballerina, living alone but financially supported by a distant mother, Mélanie enters into a sexual relationship with a middle-aged V., while dancing in Paris, 1913. Mélanie dies onstage, impaled by a prop pole; whether it is an accident or suicide is left uncertain.
Veronica Manganese
An alias for V., Veronica Manganese resides in Malta before Sidney Stencil’s death off the Maltese coast. She is a temporary lover to Sidney Stencil, as each uses the other as a part of their larger, unspoken schemes—Veronica, seemingly, a bit more successfully than Sidney.
Fausto Maijstral (Sr.)
Grandfather to Paola Maijstral, Fausto Sr. serves as an informant to Sidney Stencil in Malta.
Carla Maijstral
Grandmother to Paola Maijstral, Carla pushes Sidney Stencil to discharge her husband Fausto, for the two are soon-to-be parents.
Demivolt
A secret agent, and Sidney Stencil's co-worker, Demivolt appears in both Florence and Malta, alongside Sidney.
