The Embezzler: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Embezzler: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the complex relationships and moral dilemmas faced by its central figures, primarily Guy Prime, a charismatic but ultimately flawed character whose life spirals into embezzlement amidst the backdrop of the Great Depression. The narrative begins with Guy's memoir, written for his estranged family, revealing his rise and fall in the world of finance, highlighting his friendships, especially with Rex Geer, who struggles with jealousy and his own moral compass as he witnesses Guy's reckless behavior.
Angelica Hyde, Guy's wife, provides a contrasting perspective, recounting her disillusionment with Guy’s ambitions and infidelities, and her eventual bond with Rex after their respective marriages evolve. Lucy Ames Geer, Rex's wife, emerges as a moral anchor, offering support to Angelica and embodying resilience in the face of personal tragedy. Other characters, such as Marcellus de Grasse, symbolize the traditional values of the banking world, while Evadne Prime, the daughter of Guy and Angelica, represents a new generation seeking stability and integrity. This exploration captures the interplay of ambition, betrayal, and redemption among its characters, resonating with themes of morality and family dynamics in a changing society.
The Embezzler: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Louis Auchincloss
First published: 1966
Genre: Novel
Locale: Primarily New York City and its suburbs
Plot: Social
Time: c. 1905–1960
Guy Prime, the embezzler of the title. He tells the first version of this story. He sets down a memoir just before his death in 1960, hoping his daughter will read it and show it to his three grandchildren, who have never known him. Born in the 1880's to socially pretentious but shallow parents in New York City, Guy combines fine looks and a gregarious personality. A popular member of the Harvard class of 1907, he befriends the impoverished Rex Geer and saves Rex's college career at a critical moment simply by learning (by honest, if unusual, means) that Rex is about to win an important prize. Later, Guy introduces Rex to his family and friends, as well as to the rich banker Marcellus de Grasse, who hires both young men. Their friendship is shaken when Rex proves to be the better banker but fails to win Guy's cousin Alix Prime, even though Guy tries to help in that endeavor. Guy quits his banking job with de Grasse, then meets and marries Angelica Hyde in Europe. They have a daughter, Evadne, and a son, Percy. Guy sets himself up as a Wall Street broker. Success follows success until, in the Great Depression, Guy fails adequately to retrench. He begins borrowing from funds held in trust to shore up failing projects, thus becoming an embezzler. Exposed, convicted, investigated by New Deal reformers, and imprisoned in 1936, he expatriates himself to Panama in 1941. He lives out his days as a gregarious merchant with a young Panamanian wife and children.
Reginald (Rex) Geer, the second narrator of the story. If children and grandchildren must see Guy's memoirs, he will add his version. The son of a Vermont parson, Rex is a brilliant but isolated student until Guy befriends him. After graduation, he shares Guy's apartment in New York until his rejection by Alix Prime. Rex then concentrates on work, rising rapidly in the world of investment banking. He marries Lucy, a perfect wife in every respect until, in middle age, her crippling illness contributes to Rex's brief infidelity. Rex tries to save Guy from the consequences of his embezzlements by covering them with loans, but Guy continues gambling with other people's money after promising to stop. Rex blames Guy for his own humiliation and for the New Deal's investigation and regulation of Wall Street.
Angelica Hyde, the third and concluding narrator. She corrects Rex as well as Guy. She is educated in a convent and unhappily attached to her endlessly touring mother. Angelica falls in love with Guy during a Mediterranean cruise, only to discover after their marriage that Guy insists on her playing a role to aid his conquest of Wall Street and New York society. Alienated at last by Guy's manipulations and infidelities, she contents herself with an extravagant country estate and equestrian sport. Her affair with Rex begins because he allows her to teach him to ride. It ends when Guy goads Angelica into begging Rex to divorce Lucy. Angelica becomes Rex and Lucy's devoted friend, however, after Guy's conviction. After Lucy's death, Angelica and Rex marry.
Lucy Ames, later Lucy Geer, a girl who grows up next door to Rex in Vermont. She moves to New York City to find work. Rex, recovered from Alix and properly established in business, marries her. They have a son, George, and a daughter who dies in infancy. Severely crippled in middle age, Lucy becomes a moral force for restoration after Guy's arrest. She provides a cottage and a vocation for the near-penniless Angelica.
Mrs. Lewis Irving Hyde, a cultivated and worldly-wise woman who contrives the marriage of her daughter Angelica to Guy. An upper-class Catholic, she passes to Angelica high intelligence and an independent spirit. In 1934, she intervenes to keep Angelica from leaving Guy, not for her daughter's sake, she says, but for the sake of Lucy and Rex.
Marcellus de Grasse, the senior partner of an old and successful banking firm. He cultivates Guy but discovers that Guy's friend Rex has the finer intelligence and firmer character. A man of wide knowledge, searching intellect, and personal integrity, he stands for the best of the older world of finance.
Evadne Prime, Guy and Angelica's daughter. She inherits her parents' beauty and intelligence and has better luck—or judgment. Her marriage to George Geer and their three children give vitality and continuity to the marriage of Angelica and Rex.
George Geer, a son who combines the virtues of his parents, Rex and Lucy. He is already established in the world of finance when he discovers his prospective father-in-law going bankrupt. He stands by all concerned.