George Duncan

George Duncan’s niceness and his tendency to fall short of doing what he needs to do to sustain romantic relationships and develop his artistic abilities makes him an unfulfilled man at the beginning of the novel. He grows as the narrative progresses, however, and by the end of the novel he is able to embrace his creative side, stand up to family members when they do not show him respect, and act in a manner that seems harsh, but is needed to save a person from a life of mediocrity. George is one of the main characters in the novel.

At the beginning of the novel, George is living a life of inaction and mediocrity after his divorce from his ex-wife Clare, who divorced him over nine years ago and the fact that he does not have a new romantic interest. His problem is that he...