Dr. Howells

Dr. Howells is the chairman of the department of history at the prestigious college where Louise works and where Mary is led to believe she is a job candidate. He is arrogant, detached, and pretentious. The air of entitlement and superiority with which he presents himself is undermined, however, by his appearance. Mary is able to remember his name in part because he is so strikingly ugly, with a "porous blue nose and terrible teeth."

Jonathan

Louise describes Jonathan as her lover. He never appears in the story. Because Louise barges in on Mary late on a night she said she would be spending with Jonathan, demanding to know if Mary thinks she is "womanly" or has a sense of humor, readers can guess that he has expressed dissatisfaction with her in regard to those qualities.

Louise

Louise, a former colleague of Mary's at Brandon College, is...