The Aerodrome: A Love Story: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Aerodrome: A Love Story" delves into the complex lives of its characters, primarily highlighting the intertwined fates of Roy, the Flight-Lieutenant, and their relationships with their guardians and peers. Roy, an adopted son grappling with his identity, embodies the conflict between traditional village life and the allure of modernity represented by the aerodrome. His journey of self-discovery is marked by pivotal moments, including the revelation of his true parentage, which culminates in a dramatic climax.
The Flight-Lieutenant, a charming and moody officer, serves as a bridge between the past and future, often critical of his village roots while simultaneously embodying its flaws and virtues. The Rector, a man plagued by guilt and remorse over his past actions, struggles with complex feelings towards Roy and the legacy of his choices. In contrast, the Rector’s wife displays a placid demeanor, yet reveals strength in her protective instincts towards Roy. The Air Vice-Marshal, with his cold ambition, embodies the harsh consequences of pride and betrayal within the narrative.
Other significant figures, like the Squire and Florence, provide a backdrop of traditional values and personal sacrifices, enriching the story's exploration of themes like identity, ambition, and familial ties. Together, these characters navigate a world defined by both emotional depth and societal expectations, making the narrative a poignant reflection on love and self-acceptance amidst conflict.
The Aerodrome: A Love Story: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Rex Warner
First published: 1941
Genre: Novel
Locale: An English village
Plot: Allegory
Time: Shortly after the start of World War II
Roy, the supposed son of the Rector and his wife. Roy (though athletic and educated at home) is a typical village inhabitant of undeveloped character. At his twenty-first birthday dinner party (a British rite of passage to adulthood), he is told that he is adopted; he responds by getting drunk. He is ambivalent about the village (representing muddling tradition) and the aerodrome (representing modern efficiency). He is both sensual and thoughtful. Although he loses and regains his desire to see the world in realistic terms, he sees that he can neither reshape nor avoid it. The story is his autobiographical narrative of the events of the year following his birthday party; the climax is his discovery that the Air Vice-Marshal is his father.
The Flight-Lieutenant, an officer at the aerodrome, also twenty-one years old. He represents the link between the past and the future, between tradition and modernity. He has tight, yellow curls, keen eyes, and a forward-thrusting jaw; he is considered handsome and charming. Although he is often moody, bitter, and vindictive, he is admired by Roy and is successful as a seducer. He is knowledgeable, irrepressible, and a practical joker. He usually speaks with a cold voice, and he is often deeply critical of the village. He has the virtues and graces absent in Roy, though he kills both the Rector and the Air Vice-Marshal, his father, who had seduced and abandoned his mother, the Squire's sister, Florence.
The Rector, Roy's guardian and putative father. At the age of thirty, when a theological student, he planned the murder of a fellow student (brighter and more handsome) who had won the affections of the girl he loved and the appointment that he wanted. Anthony, the friend, survived, left the church, and became Air Vice-Marshal. The Rector had a child, Bess, by his housekeeper, Eva, the innkeeper's wife. He is racked by guilt and remorse, annually confessing his guilt in his prayers for forgiveness. He is now fifty-two, and his contrition is extreme, though he loves Roy and knew of his wife's pregnancy by Anthony before they were married. He has a pale face, a black beard, thin lips, and fierce, penetrating eyes, yet he is “the gentlest of men.” His eternal torture, he recognizes, is the consequence of jealousy, which has brought dissimulation, deceit, and disquiet.
The Rector's Wife, a pale-faced woman with thin yellow hair and an expansive white forehead. She rarely exhibits any feelings except placidity and contentment, though when she overhears her husband's confession, her look suggests both triumph and contempt. Her closest friend is the Squire's sister, Florence. Only in her confrontation with the Air Vice-Marshal, in which she aims to protect Roy, does she show any strength of character.
The Air Vice-Marshal, the effaced theological student Anthony, who always has had tremendous ambition. He is a man of great intellectual gifts and of impressive physique and upright carriage. He is noted for his concentration, certainty, and self-control as well as for his lack of nervousness, his authoritative (and cold) voice, and his “small cordiality.” He is opposed to inefficiency, waste, and stupidity, as well as to sentiment and spontaneity. His motto, “That the world may be clean,” is his constant motivation. The news of the Rector's marriage may well have been the factor that determined his character. Hatred, pride, and ambition cause him to order the death of one son (the Flight-Lieutenant) and to kill his mother; only his “accidental” death saves Roy and his mother.
The Squire, the symbol of the traditional ways of the village, who has been in declining health since his lands were confiscated to allow for the building of the aerodrome. He seems very old: His face appears small and pale, with the skin dragged back from the bones, and his deeply pitted eyes are accented by great eyebrows. He is amiable and exudes aristocratic confidence and persuasive kindliness. He and his sister, Florence, shared mutual gratitude and devoted friendship. On his deathbed, he wishes to see Roy; he says only “Your father,” then “Florence,” before becoming silent. Roy infers that the Rector is not his actual father.
Florence, the Squire's sister and mother of the Flight-Lieutenant. She is a tall, thin woman with remarkably clear gray eyes and is interested in charities. The best friend of the Rector's wife, she was seduced and abandoned by Anthony.
Dr. Faulkner, a physician. A friend of both the Rector and Anthony, he rescued Anthony after a mountain-climbing accident and nursed him back to health, but he kept this a secret (to allow Anthony to lead a new life) and even went through a funeral for him, thus allowing the Rector to marry Anthony's pregnant girlfriend and to obtain his benefice. Dr. Faulkner is a short, fat man with an almost bald head and is the personification of the genial village doctor and mentor. His poise and authority in the confrontation between the Air Vice-Marshal and his antagonists at the end of the novel provide elucidation and credibility.