The Wave: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: Evelyn Scott

First published: 1929

Genre: Novel

Locale: The United States, Portugal, and Germany

Plot: Historical

Time: April 11, 1861, to May 24, 1865

Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America, a man small enough in stature to belie the authority invested in him and capable of seeing more with his one good eye than most men see with both. Very image-conscious, he is ashamed of his desire to flee once it becomes apparent that the Confederacy is doomed, and his fugitive status is difficult for his vanity to endure. He eventually is found secreted in a farmhouse near Irwinsville, Georgia, and at the end of the novel awaits trial for treason against the United States of America.

Abraham Lincoln, the president of the United States of America. A tall, thin man with much presence, Lincoln is too proud to allow himself to show any humility in public. His determination and belief in predestination have brought him to the presidency, and they carry him through the difficult stance he has taken in his actions against the Confederate States of America. Lincoln is assassinated at Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth, who is captured while attempting to escape.

Robert E. Lee, a Confederate general. General Lee is a calmly tenacious man with a kindly eye and manner. Beloved by officers and enlisted men alike, he struggles with depressions and a love of privacy difficult for a leader to display with dignity. He is deeply religious and earns much of his reputation for kindliness and dignity through his efforts to convince enlisted men of the importance of faith. Lee corresponds with General Ulysses S. Grant during the fighting outside Richmond, and through this correspondence he obtains General Grant's respect. Lee is tricked into surrendering his Confederate Armies of Virginia to Grant after General Philip Henry Sheridan strategically contrives to make the numbers of the Union troops seem far larger than they are.

Ulysses S. Grant, a Union general, commander of the Army of the Potomac, a stocky, full-bearded man with pale eyes. Although he has oratorical abilities, he is laconic in personal conversation. His popularity is a continual surprise to him, for he believes himself to be arrogant and shy. He uses his oratorical abilities to recruit soldiers to the Union cause and later leads these same soldiers against Lee to the eventual surrender of Lee. Grant conducts himself superciliously during the surrender negotiations and formalities, and the whole affair of Lee's surrender leaves him determined never to spend as much energy on the man or the cause again.

Edwin George, a tobacco merchant and a Union spy from Tennessee. A handsome but coarse man with curly, graying hair, he believes himself to be wicked and accordingly distrusts and suspects fellow humans. He is undertaking an attempt to glean some information from a former lover and sister-in-law, Eugenia Gilbert. He is unaware that she has accepted a commission to become an abolitionist informer and hopes to extract similar information from him. Their meeting is warm with old attraction and rife with the inner conflict of their interests.

Eugenia Gilbert, an abolitionist spy, an older woman who appears more tired and haggard than her age should merit. She has become hypocritical and cares only for the money to be earned by spying. Her exploitation of her former lover Edwin George probably will be successful, for she unbalances him at their first meeting and secures a promise for a private meeting the following day.

Dickie Ross, a Confederate volunteer. Dickie is young, aflame with enthusiasm, and tired of his clerking position. He is in a rowboat in Charleston Harbor when the first shot is fired on Fort Sumter and responds with youthful, ignorant enthusiasm.

Percy, an attorney's scribe. Percy is unambitious, tedious, methodical, and fastidious about his health and manners. He is killed in a mob that is protesting the marching of Lincoln's troops through Baltimore.

Henry Clay, a little boy affected by the political pull between his Aunt Amanda's Confederate sympathies and his mother's Union sympathies. Henry is anemic, churlish, and frightened by the conflict between the women. He is unable to reconcile his love for both of them as they struggle to win his affections.

Franklin Rutherford and Charlie, two Union soldiers. Franklin and Charlie are uneducated poor whites, basically well-meaning and patriotic. They become demoralized and embittered by the terrors of battle.

Mrs. Witherspoon, a member of the Confederate Ladies Aid Society. She is proud and falsely patriotic, reveling in the appearance of the mother worried about her soldier son's welfare. She experiences an awakening and her first real suffering when she receives news that her son George has been killed. Her false concern shows itself in indignity at not being the first to be told, then real grief overcomes her and she swoons.

Josie Kendricks, George Witherspoon's fiancée, a member of the same Confederate Ladies Aid Society as Mrs. Witherspoon. Josie is an emotional yet contained young patriot. She is the first to receive the news that George Witherspoon has been killed.

James Witherspoon, Mrs. Witherspoon's youngest son and the late George Witherspoon's brother. Sensitive and unpatriotic, he is driven insane by the knowledge of his brother's death. He wishes he could have died instead, and he believes George has died a needless, worthless death.

Mose Elder and Cat Foot Dawsey, two black “dirt-eaters” from Tennessee who shoot two men. They are patriotic and have great feelings of guilt over their failure to enlist. They let these guilt feelings convince them that their patriotic duty is to shoot the soldiers, who might be deserters. They shoot the two men without ever making their presence known.

Albert, a Union soldier. Albert is dutifully patriotic and servile, but he deserts when he is refused a leave of absence. He has received news that his sweetheart, Charlotte, can wait no longer for him, and in his desperation to get to her he becomes a deserter and the murderer of an innocent black man.

Melinda and Thomas, a couple aboard the Atlantide, a blockade runner boat. Melinda and Thomas are wealthy idlers, concerned only with their own comfort; they regard the war as a great inconvenience. They are bound for the northeast coast, where Thomas plans halfheartedly to offer his services as a surgeon to the Confederate cause. They are in continual danger from the blockade searchers, and this danger lends them the only significance their lives contain.

Lee Shuck, a Union soldier. Lee is an average soldier, having enlisted out of a middle-class sense of duty. He is awaiting execution by his own commanders, however, for falling asleep while on sentinel duty, and he is bewildered and frustrated that his laxness is so seriously interpreted.

Samuel Wharton and Sadie Wharton, a Union couple in conflict about which side to support financially. They are self-righteous and vain about their ability to make financial contributions to any cause. Their son fought for the Confederacy, but Samuel wants to support the more official Union. Mrs. Wharton wants to support the Confederacy in memory of their son, and their arguments and ensuing alienations are terrible.

Gunner Renfield, a sailor aboard the Itasca during the assault near Fort Jackson. Gunner is an introspective and delicate individual. He is overcome by the horror of the battles and fails to save his shipmate and friend, Harry Dewey, when the Itasca is bombed and sinks.

Harry Dewey, another sailor aboard the Itasca during the assault near Fort Jackson. Harry is idealistically dependent on the goodwill of his buddies and sentimentalizes their affections for him. When he is tossed overboard during the bombing of the Itasca, he relies on his friend Gunner Renfield and drowns when Gunner is too horrified to save him.

Parker, a Union soldier in New Orleans. Parker is an aggressive, alcoholic, and burly man unable to reconcile his dislike of his station with his sense of duty. He forces some Creole shopkeepers to sell him gin against their will, knowing that the sale of liquor to soldiers is against the law of the federal government.

Hallie and her lover, two lovers who rendezvous during the young man's desertion. Hallie, a pretty and comely girl of about eighteen years, is jaded and embittered by the war situation. Although she physically enjoys meeting her lover, she believes that the war has cheapened romance and forced her to accept a less romantic sort of involvement and commitment, a clandestine rendezvous instead of a marriage proposal.

Eloise Ducros, a young French girl. Eloise is cunning and poor, with barely attractive features hardened into ugliness by poverty. She has been jilted by her French lover and is forced, with Madame Ducros, her housemate, to take in Union boarders to support herself. Her sympathies are Confederate, and she is filled with self-loathing at the position to which she has sunk. She is particularly repulsed by Lieutenant Fisk, who pays her romantic attentions and whom she cannot afford to anger.

Lieutenant Fisk, a Union soldier who is vain, obese, and self-inflated. He is boarding in the house of Confederate sympathizers Madame Ducros and Eloise Ducros. Fisk is engaged in clandestine relations with Eloise, who despises him but receives his attentions because she and Madame Ducros need the money that Fisk gives to them.

Carrie, a rebel pickpocket. Carrie is twenty-nine years old, still attractive but becoming sullen and desperate, having come down in social station because of the war. Carrie kills a Yankee soldier in a fit of passionate hatred while trying to rob him.

Fanny May, a young Confederate mother. Fanny is dreamy, pale, and distant, living in a world apart since the death of her baby. The baby cost Fanny her health and most of her faculties. Despite Fanny's weak condition and the doctor's orders to stay in bed, Fanny and some friends drive out to the hills of Richmond to see the battle. They are shocked when they are shelled, and Fanny becomes even weaker.

Saunders, a plantation owner and a member of Morgan's cavalry. A short and stolid but agile man, Saunders is determined to hijack a train bearing Union soldiers and supplies to Hampton Junction. He succeeds in stopping the train so that the Confederates can attack it and pilfer the supplies.

Smith, a wounded soldier of unknown loyalties. Smith is thin, slow-witted, and easily bewildered. He has been mortally wounded and dies slowly while crawling through a battlefield strewn with bodies from both armies.

Frazer, a Confederate deserter. Frazer is young, virile, and faithless. He is ashamed of his faithlessness as a pretense only; given the chance to do so undetected, he deserts when he realizes that the Confederates are going to be defeated.

Miss Amanda and Maude May, two Confederate women. The sisters are proud and disdainful, thin, shrewish, and peaked looking. They have difficulty reconciling their pride with their situation, which requires them to beg for food and sell their belongings for a pittance. As a result, they spend most of their time deploring their situation and mournfully hoping the war will end.