The Arcades Project | Teaching Key Figures

Character Descriptions

This section provides a short description of all the major characters in the book. This can be printed out as a study guide for students, used as a "key" for leading a class discussion, or you can jump to the quiz/homework section to find worksheets that incorporate these descriptions into a variety of question formats.

Characters

Walter Benjamin - This is the author of the book.

Baudelaire - This is a famous French author and thinker that is often mentioned in the book.

Victor Hugo - This person is an important author of the 19th century, and there is one photograph of him included in the book.

Friedrich Nietzsche - This is one of the 19th century German philosophers.

Karl Marx - This person focused upon the hopes and challenges represented by the efforts of the lower economic classes of people to attain rights and bearable working conditions.