Critics have called The Mandarins a roman a clef (a story based on real-life people and real-life events). Beauvoir in Force of Circumstance has refuted this claim while admitting that the characters are patterned after real-life persons. She mentions, for example, that the characters of both Henri Perron and Anne Dubreuilh have some traits of herself. In general it can be said that through their force of reasoning and their individual conduct, consistent with their proclaimed attitudes, and through their human frailties and suffering, Beauvoir's characters have become independent figures.

The principal characters of The Mandarins are Henri Perron and Anne Dubreuilh who identify themselves with reference to the third protagonist Robert Dubreuilh. The latter seems to be the center on which situations evolve, but he remains distant to the reader.

Dubreuilh is the wise leader, endowed with patience, a good sense of humor, and an unusual capacity...