Voices in Time: Analysis of Major Characters
"Voices in Time: Analysis of Major Characters" explores a range of interconnected characters set against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic world. The main narrator, John Wellfleet, a seventy-six-year-old former hippie and educator, reflects on the past while helping to uncover historical documents that reveal the complexities of the twentieth century. His friendship with André Gervais, a young French Canadian eager to forge a new society, symbolizes the intergenerational transmission of wisdom and the importance of historical context in rebuilding civilization.
Timothy Wellfleet, John's cousin, offers a critique of capitalist society through his television show, which ultimately spirals into tragedy when his actions lead to the wrongful accusation and murder of Conrad Dehmel, a German historian with a tumultuous past linked to Nazi Germany. Esther Stahr, Timothy's mistress and co-producer, recognizes the moral implications of their work and chooses to distance herself from the destructive nature of their entertainment.
Conrad Dehmel's narrative intertwines personal and historical struggles, highlighting his complex relationships with family, love, and ideology against the harsh realities of war and betrayal. Each character's journey reflects broader themes of survival, morality, and the resonance of history, emphasizing the need for reflection and understanding in a world that has faced profound destruction.
Voices in Time: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Hugh MacLennan
First published: 1980
Genre: Novel
Locale: Germany and Montreal
Plot: Historical
Time: 2039–2044, with flashbacks to the twentieth century
John Wellfleet, the narrator, age seventy-six, a former hippie and teacher and the survivor of the “clean” bombs that destroyed civilization. During the rebuilding of Metro (Montreal), the Wellfleet-Dehmel papers are discovered, and André Gervais asks John Wellfleet to put them in order. The papers reveal the history of the twentieth century. Happy in his rediscovery of the past and his usefulness to a new generation, John dies in a cottage near the Gervais family.
André Gervais, a young French Canadian, discoverer of the papers, discoverer of John, and representative of the new generation eager to rebuild a civilization connected with the best the past can offer. He befriends Wellfleet, discovers his body, and narrates his death. Their friendship represents the renewed linking of the generations and the transmission of history and wisdom that results.
Timothy Wellfleet, John's older cousin, an advertising man and host of the 1970's television show This Is Now. The child of divorced parents and shaped by the novel The Catcher in the Rye, Timothy rejects his conventional suburban life and family and his success in advertising for Esther Stahr and television. Apparently criticizing the capitalist system, his abrasive show is really a safety valve for it. Unprincipled showmanship leads Timothy falsely to accuse Dehmel of Nazism, an accusation that leads to Dehmel's murder. When Timothy discovers that his show has been canceled and his victim is the husband of his foster mother, he becomes distraught and disappears.
Esther Stahr, the Jewish coproducer of This Is Now and Timothy's mistress. Realizing that Timothy destroys public men simply to entertain, she leaves him and the show before the Dehmel debacle.
Colonel Wellfleet, Timothy's father, a war hero and an archetypal male WASP of the Eisenhower period, rich, bewildered, and irrelevant in later decades.
Stephanie Wellfleet, John's mother, Timothy's foster mother, and the wife of Conrad Dehmel. She is a gentle, loving woman.
Conrad Dehmel, the second narrator, a German Egyptologist and historian. His narrative, written in German, is addressed to Stephanie and tells of his childhood in Freiburg with his gentle mother and grandfather, both musicians and cultured Europeans; of his father, a naval officer; and of his younger brother, Siegfried, a fanatical Nazi. Conrad foolishly marries the stupid Eva Schmidt and takes her to England, where he is studying. The marriage fails. Subsequently, he falls deeply in love with Hanna Enlich, a Jewish woman. In spite of her warnings, he returns to Adolf Hitler's Germany, where he is trapped, becoming director of an academic institute and working for an anti-Gestapo intelligence service. Finally, he joins the Gestapo to help the Enlichs escape, but Eva Schmidt recognizes him and betrays him to her husband, Heinrich. Conrad breaks under Gestapo torture. The Allies liberate Dehmel from Belsen. He goes to North America and marries Stephanie. He appears on This Is Now to warn Canadians that casual violence, the manipulation of the economy and the society by hidden powers, and the absence of principle and restraint signal a civilization's collapse. When Timothy accuses him of Nazism, Dehmel walks off the show, but a Jewish viewer, confusing him with Heinrich, subsequently shoots him.
Hanna Enlich, Conrad's mistress, a cellist and member of the Jewish intelligentsia. Hanna returns to Nazi Germany as a Red Cross official to help her interned father. Although Conrad arranges their escape, they are captured, and the Gestapo confronts them with Conrad. Understanding that under torture he has revealed their whereabouts, Hanna's last act is to explain that they already had been captured, so the betrayal is unimportant.
Rear-Admiral Dehmel, Conrad's father, a gunnery officer, technocrat, and unthinkingly obedient patriot. He is shattered by the defeat of 1914–1918, shamed by the Treaty of Versailles, and seduced by Nazi promises. Although he is promoted in the rebuilt navy, he becomes disillusioned with Nazism. Accused of being privy to the officers' plot against Hitler, he is killed, and his wife is taken by the Gestapo. He represents the German officer class.