Less than Angels: Analysis of Major Characters
"Less than Angels" explores the complexities of relationships and identity through its diverse cast of characters, primarily revolving around the world of anthropology. The story follows Catherine Oliphant, a perceptive and unconventional writer, as she navigates her romantic entanglements with Tom Mallow, a self-absorbed anthropologist whose tragic fate unfolds after he leaves Catherine for another woman. Tom’s journey, marked by vanity and charm, culminates in his untimely death while conducting research in Africa.
Supporting characters include Professor Felix Byron Mainwaring, a distinguished but jaded anthropologist who has lost his passion for the field, and Minnie Foresight, a wealthy widow funding a research center under his influence. The narrative also features Esther Clovis and Gertrude Lydgate, dedicated anthropologists whose devotion contrasts with the apathy of younger students like Digby Fox and Jean-Pierre le Rossignol. Through these relationships, the novel highlights themes of ambition, disillusionment, and the quest for authenticity in both personal and professional spheres, making it a nuanced examination of human connections within the academic milieu.
Less than Angels: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Barbara Pym
First published: 1955
Genre: Novel
Locale: London, its suburbs, and the English countryside
Plot: Fiction of manners
Time: The 1950's
Catherine Oliphant, a writer of stories and articles for women's magazines. A short, slender woman, thirty-one years old, she is a keen observer of everyday life, more perceptive in her reading of the nuances of social behavior than are many of the anthropologists who figure in the story. She is witty, whimsical, self-deprecating, and unconventional. In her fiction, she manipulates romantic clichés with ironic detachment, yet she nurtures such fancies herself. As the novel begins, she is awaiting the return of her lover, Tom Mallow, who has been in Africa for nearly two years. Later, after Tom leaves her, she develops an interest in Alaric Lydgate, a fellow outsider.
Tom Mallow, an anthropologist. Handsome, vain, self-absorbed, and unfailingly attractive to women, the twenty-nine-year-old Tom is the last scion of a once-prominent family with a rundown estate in Shropshire. He returns from Africa with a nearly completed dissertation and no real belief in his work. After jilting Catherine for a young student, Deirdre Swan, he goes back to Africa, where he is killed by accident when police fire into a crowd to suppress a riot.
Professor Felix Byron Mainwaring, an eminent anthropologist. A cultured man from a privileged background, he is conscious of his distinction. In retirement, he has turned to fund-raising, using his considerable charm to establish in London an anthropological library and research center. The irony is that he has entirely lost his passion for the actual practice of anthropology.
Minnie Foresight, a wealthy widow whom Mainwaring has persuaded to endow the center and from whom he expects additional funds to provide research grants for promising students.
Esther Clovis, who is currently Mainwaring's administrative assistant at the library and research center, a middle-aged woman with a long-established and near-religious devotion to anthropology.
Gertrude Lydgate, an anthropologist and linguist specializing in African languages. As the novel begins, she has recently become the housemate of Esther Clovis, whose fervor for anthropology she shares.
Father Gemini, a Roman Catholic priest and an anthropologist, a sometime collaborator with Gertrude Lydgate. Surreptitiously, he prevails on Foresight to give to him the money ticketed for Mainwaring's grants to use for a project of his own.
Digby Fox, an anthropology student in his third year at the university, hopeful of receiving a grant from Mainwaring's center. After Tom's death, Digby receives Tom's fellowship and, apparently, inherits his relationship with Deirdre Swan as well.
Mark Penfold, another third-year anthropology student, Digby's constant companion. After the fiasco of the research grants, the cynical Mark abandons anthropology for business: He has a job lined up in the firm of his fiancée's father.
Jean-Pierre le Rossignol, an anthropology student from France. His reductionism and his French condescension render him hilariously incompetent as an interpreter of English customs.
Deirdre Swan, a nineteen-year-old anthropology student who lives with her mother, her mother's sister, and her older brother in a suburb north of London. Her commitment to her chosen field of study is minimal, but she is wholehearted in her commitment to Tom. She perceives him as a romantic ideal, never seeing him clearly. After his death, she refuses to dramatize their love, and it is clear that she is ready to get on with her life.
Alaric Lydgate, Gertrude Lydgate's brother and the Swans' next-door neighbor, an anthropologist recently removed from the Colonial Service in Africa. He regards himself as a failure and is oppressed by the trunkfuls of field notes that he has never “written up.” He enjoys a minor reputation as a merciless reviewer in anthropological journals. Craggy-featured and eccentric, he finds in Catherine a kindred spirit; at her urging, he consigns all of his notes to a liberating bonfire, much to the horror of his sister and Miss Clovis.
Elaine, Tom's first love, from Shropshire, a woman of his own class and still attached to him. She takes great interest in raising golden retrievers. After Tom's death, she goes to London with his sister for lunch with Catherine and Deirdre; the lunch is a civil but surreal meeting of the women in Tom's life.