The Dean's December: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Dean's December" is a novel that intricately explores the complexities of its characters as they navigate moral dilemmas and contrasting worlds. The central figure, Albert Corde, serves as a journalism professor and dean, grappling with the clash between his idealistic beliefs and the pragmatic realities of modern life. His internal conflict is intensified by external events, including the murder of a student, Rick Lester, and the death of his mother-in-law in Romania, prompting him to reflect on societal corruption and human limitations.
Albert's wife, Minna, embodies a simpler, more emotional perspective, contrasting with Albert's intellectual pursuits. Other significant characters include Valeria Raresh, Minna's mother, who represents selflessness and quiet strength amidst political repression in Romania, and Elfrida Zaehner, Albert's affluent sister, whose lifestyle keeps Albert connected to the upper-class world. The narrative also features characters like Alec Witt, the pragmatic university provost, and Dewey Spangler, Albert's rival journalist, highlighting the tensions between idealism and cynicism.
Through these characters, the novel delves into themes of integrity, the struggle for human connection, and the often harsh realities of life in both American and Romanian contexts. Each character adds depth to the overarching narrative, reflecting a diverse range of perspectives on morality, privilege, and societal pressures.
The Dean's December: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Saul Bellow
First published: 1982
Genre: Novel
Locale: Bucharest, Chicago, and California
Plot: Comic realism
Time: The 1970's
Albert Corde, a journalism professor and dean at a university in Chicago. Caught between his intellectual, idealistic belief in morality and the pragmatic, relativistic demands of the modern world, Albert seeks balance in his life. In the past, he abandoned journalism for the relative seclusion of the academy, but two events draw him back into direct consideration of the world beyond the university: Rick Lester's murder and the death of Albert's mother-in-law in Romania. Rick Lester's death leads Albert into an examination of the morally corrupt and destructive environment of Chicago, the doomed lives of its lower class, and the moral obtuseness of its leaders. In Romania, Albert struggles with a political system that is determined to limit human possibilities. In the end, Albert resigns his academic post and decides to return to a kind of intellectual journalism, striving for a balance between the sterile isolation of the academic life and the cynical pragmatism of the capitalists and communists he encounters.
Minna Corde, Albert's Romanian wife, an astronomy professor at the same university. Minna is Albert's complement. As an accomplished pure scientist and an emotional innocent, Minna contrasts with her husband's speculative humanism and worldly experience. Brilliant but uncomplicated, Minna provides her husband with an emotional touchstone that helps him survive.
Valeria Raresh, Minna's mother, who is dying in Bucharest. She is a former Communist Party member, a former minister of health, and a founder of the Communist Party Hospital. Her quiet support for political reform and Minna's defection cost Valeria her position and her privileges, but she is a strong and selfless woman who spends her life doing for others: protecting her daughter by engineering Minna's escape to the West, caring for her younger sister Gigi, upholding the medical ideals of her late husband, and providing quiet leadership for other oppressed medical people in Romania.
Elfrida Zaehner, later Sorokin, Albert's sister. Elfrida is wealthy and somewhat ostentatious in her expenditures. Loving her as deeply as he does keeps Albert in sympathetic contact with the genteel world of privilege and prevents him from too readily dismissing the humanity of the upper classes.
Alec Witt, the provost and Albert's superior at his university. Witt is the ultimate pragmatic bureaucrat, superficially polite and considerate but devoid of human compassion or understanding. He loses respect for Albert when he realizes that the dean does not understand or is unwilling to play the “game.” Angered by Albert's advocacy in the Lester case, Witt gladly accepts Albert's resignation.
Dewey Spangler, a famous journalist and Albert's boyhood friend. Aging and ill, Spangler persists in pursuing his boyhood rivalry with Albert, embarrassing Albert by reprinting his private remarks in a syndicated column.
Mason Zaehner, Elfrida's deceased husband. Intelligent but determinedly anti-intellectual, he derides Albert's academic life as useless escapism.
Mason Zaehner, Jr., Elfrida's son and Albert's nephew. Mason reacts against the privilege of his upbringing by espousing radical political ideas. His support of Leroy Ebry, who is accused and eventually convicted of murdering Rick Lester, a university student, brings him into angry confrontation with Albert.
Max Detillion, a disreputable lawyer and Albert's cousin. Max cheats the gullible Albert out of thousands of dollars and conducts a shrill, self-serving legal attack against Albert as Leroy Ebry's defense attorney.
Rick Lester, a graduate student at Albert's university who is murdered by Leroy Ebry. Albert becomes deeply involved in the pursuit of Lester's murderer, feeling particularly protective toward Lester's widow, Lydia.
Tanti Gigi, Valeria Raresh's sister, who has always depended on the protection of her older sister. Valeria's death leaves Gigi to face the barrenness of Romanian life alone.
Rufus Ridpath, a black prison warden who is dismissed from his position because of charges of misconduct. Albert defends Ridpath, seeing him as a victim of a corrupt political system and an unusual example of a man of courage and principle.
Traian, a Romanian driver who helps the Cordes through the complex process of bribes necessary to navigate the Romanian bureaucracy.
Ioanna, the concierge in Valeria's building and a police informant. Treated as one of the family although everyone knows that she is an informant, Ioanna exemplifies the odd divided loyalties that exist under the Romanian system.