Violet Trace

            She is Joe’s wife, she works as a hairdresser. She is nicknamed ‘violent’ after her episode at Dorcas’ funeral. Violet, in marrying Joe, was just as eager to disavow memories of an itinerant father and a mother who jumped down a well. Violet never had any desire to have children, and once in the city she experiences three miscarriages, which come as a relief to her. Violet struggles amidst the miscarriages, her husband’s affair and her dissipating youth to preserve her sanity. It could be seen that that sanity was lost at the funeral but she soon realizes that Joe still can love her regardless. Violet decides to stay with her husband by the advice of Alice Manfred. Violet at one point resorts to sleeping with a doll after the incessant miscarriages, serves as yet another tool of Joe’s widening distance from her. Violet represents the desire for youth in the novel because her whole world revolves around the thought that she’s lost her appeal. At the conclusion of the novel, she does not have the power to regain her youth, but she does have the power to resuscitate her marriage. Violet in the end shows her strength not in her former youth, but strength in forgiveness and mercy.

Joe Trace

            He is the son of a ‘wild’ woman who disappeared after his birth. He makes three failing attempts to find her but she remains an incomplete trace of a mother. He attempts to sever his memories of his mother, and in doing so he marries Violet. He and Violet move to the city and after two decades there, an awkward silence has grown between the two at the approach of old age. Joe meets Dorcas and she represents for him the youth that he has long since lost. Dorcas is his final opportunity to regain his youth and excitement. Dorcas eventually rejects him for a younger man. He comes to the point where he does not want her to live and live without him if he cannot live without her so he kills her. Joe is the Adam figure in the novel, he is tempted to sin and he indulges in it causing his downfall. 

Dorcas

            Dorcas was orphaned at an early age and was raised by her puritanical Aunt Alice Manfred. Her parents killed in riots in East St. Louis. Dorcas watched as her house burned down and she was at a friend’s house across the street.  Dorcas is a foolish girl who is discovering her sexuality in the book. She represents the sexuality Violet and Joe similarly have lost. Her budding sexuality is what attracts Joe Trace to cheat on his wife and indulge in sin. Dorcas has an insatiable interest in the fast life and loves defying her aunt’s straitlaced ideals by wearing silk stockings and “vampy” clothing. Dorcas provides a contrast to Joe and his wife, Violet, her fast way of living contrasts with Joe and Violet’s age and casual demeanor. Dorcas symbolically represents ‘Eve’ in the Garden of Eden in the book. She is the innocent child who tempts Adam and causes his as well as her own downfall. She also represents the desire for maturity in contrast to Joe and Violet’s desire for youth. Although Joe was Dorcas’ first step into sinful living, she represents the “wages of sin” in the novel because she craves sin and disobedience in all forms. After her funeral, under a blind rage, Violet defiles her face in her coffin. Violet wants to kill her youth, her beauty.

Alice Manfred

The strict and rather puritanical Aunt to Dorcas, she takes Dorcas in and raises her after he parents are killed. She views Joe’s crime of killing Dorcas as proof of her failure to guard her home from sin. She is an accomplished seamstress and a perfectionist. She is lonely, and eventually befriends Violet Trace despite her anger of Violet defiling her neice’s face at her funeral. Alice understands Violet’s jealousy of a youthful girl and they become friends before she leaves for Springfield, Illinois.

Felice

            Felice is Dorcas’ co-conspirator and best friend and shares her efforts to defy Alice Manfred’s rules. After Dorcas was shot, she kneeled by her deathbed begging for Dorcas to allow to be brought to a hospital. She was one of the only witnesses of Dorcas’ last words and the only witness of Dorcas letting herself die, Dorcas’ wounds were not fatal but she let herself bleed to death. At the novel’s close, she concols Joe who is suffering the consequences bearing his conscience. Felice ends up becoming the band-aid Joe and Violet’s marriage needed and her character serves as the comforter of the novel

Golden Gray/ Vera Louise Gray/ Hunter's Hunter

            These three characters have small roles and are included to introduce to the reader the idea that Joe and Violet were meant for each other. Hunter’s Hunter is the man who slept with Vera Louise and father to the angelic Golden Gray. Gold Gray was the fantasy-like character Violet’s Grandmother would tell her about in her stories. Golden Gray sets out on a mission to find his father and discovers a ‘wild’ woman on the side of the road very pregnant. Golden Gray finds his father’s house and brings her there. Joe Trace is born in Hunter’s Hunter’s house and the  ‘wild’ woman disappears.

Malvonne

            Rents a room out to Joe Trace which becomes his and Dorcas’ love nest. She is a curious character and often eaves drops on her neighbors.

Acton

            Dorcas’ rebound following Joe Trace, and he is his complete opposite. He is a young man similar to Dorcas’ age, she had tired of a wiry old man.  Acton is the man that all the girls want to be with at the party where Dorcas is shot, and Dorcas is the one who gets the prize. Dorcas rejects Joe for Acton and he is her date when Joe arrives and shoots her. In Dorcas’ eyes, Acton is a big improvement over Joe despite the way he treats her. He is disrespectful to her and reminds her of her imperfections, and Dorcas likes it.