The Go-Between: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Go-Between" explores the complexities of human relationships through its major characters, particularly focusing on Leo Colston, a solitary librarian reflecting on his past. At the heart of the story is Leo as a young boy, whose innocence and imagination are tested during a fateful summer in 1900. He becomes an unwitting messenger in a love affair between Marian Maudsley, a spirited yet self-centered woman torn between her duty to marry the aristocrat Hugh and her love for the lower-class farmer Ted Burgess. Ted, passionate and virile, inadvertently affects Leo's emotional landscape, especially when his tragic fate intertwines with the lives of the others. Hugh embodies the responsible aristocracy, with a sense of duty that ultimately leads to his marriage to Marian, despite the complexities of her circumstances. Additionally, Mrs. Maudsley’s controlling nature adds another layer of tension, particularly in her relationship with her daughter. Through these characters, the narrative delves into themes of class, duty, and the painful consequences of manipulation and misunderstanding, revealing how these dynamics shape Leo’s emotional withdrawal. The story's framing device introduces Edward Trimingham, the next generation, hinting at the lingering effects of past events on contemporary relationships.
The Go-Between: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: L. P. Hartley
First published: 1953
Genre: Novel
Locale: Primarily Brandham Hall in Norfolk, England
Plot: Love
Time: 1900, within framing chapters set in 1952
Leo Colston, a bachelor librarian in his sixties and self-proclaimed “foreigner in the world of the emotions.” Colston's discovery of the diary he kept in the summer of 1900, the year he turned thirteen, precipitates release of the repressed memories of the people and events that led to his withdrawal from emotional relationships. The young Leo, imaginative, sensitive, and eager to please, his values and vision determined by the self-centeredness of a child, visits the estate of a school-mate. Interpreting the kindness of the young adults there as affection for him, Leo feels humiliated when he realizes that their attention to him derives from their use of him as a messenger. Leo's complicity in the tragic result of their love affair causes him to repress the incident and his own emotions.
Marian Maudsley, a young woman engaged to the aristocrat Hugh but in love with the farmer Ted. A spirited, attractive, and sympathetic but somewhat self-centered woman, Marian is torn between her love for Ted, who is socially beneath her, and her family's wish that she marry Hugh, the impoverished but noble man whose family estate the wealthy Maudsleys now own. Marian responds to Leo's discomfort by buying him a suitable set of clothes and a bicycle. Her interest is not quite unselfish, however, as she involves Leo in her affair with Ted by asking the boy to carry messages of assignations between them.
Ted Burgess, a young tenant farmer on the estate. Virile, physically attractive, and passionate, Ted would be a suitable mate for Marian, except that he has insufficient income and is of a lower class. He, too, is kind to Leo. He allows his love for Marian to override his reluctance to involve Leo in their affair. Ted serves as a father figure for Leo in the matter of sex, so his suicide, after he and Marian are witnessed by Marian's mother and Leo, intensifies Leo's reaction to the whole business.
Hugh, Viscount Trimingham, an impoverished noble heir to the estate occupied by the Maudsleys. Hugh's virtues are those of the responsible aristocracy: good taste, good manners, and a highly developed sense of duty. He has recently returned from the Boer War with a disfiguring scar on his face. Whereas Ted's love for Marian is inseparable from his sexual passion, Hugh's love for her is inseparable from his obligation to restore the family estate to the family name. Hugh always does “the right thing.” He is also kind to Leo and uses Leo to convey messages to Marian but without anything illicit behind them. Eventually, he marries Marian even though she is pregnant with Ted's child.
Mrs. Maudsley, Marian's mother. The principal proponent of Marian's marriage to Hugh, she invites Leo to visit so that he will be a companion for her son while she arranges the engagement. Her excessive need to be in control causes a conflict of wills between herself and her daughter and results in her nervous breakdown after she discovers Marian with Ted.
Marcus Maudsley, Leo's schoolmate. Marcus is a schoolboyish snob with good manners and a desire to know successful people. Impressed by the name of Leo's home, Court Place, Marcus cultivates Leo's friendship at school. At his mother's suggestion that he invite a companion home, he chooses Leo. Marcus' attack of the measles provides Leo with the freedom to wander the estate and be useful to Marian and Ted.
Edward Trimingham, the grandson of Marian and Ted who, in the frame story, is the current Viscount Trimingham. In his twenties, he refuses to marry the woman he loves because he believes that his family has been cursed since that summer. Although he still lives in the house, it is rented to a girls' school. Marian asks Leo again to carry a message for her and thus again to become involved in her affairs. That Leo does so implies his willingness to come out of his shell.