Daniel Martin: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: John Fowles

First published: 1977

Genre: Novel

Locale: Hollywood, England, Egypt, and Syria

Plot: Autobiographical

Time: The mid-1970's, with flashbacks through the 1940's

Daniel (Dan) Martin, a British playwright turned Hollywood screenwriter. Dan is a forty-five-year-old man in emotional and artistic exile. Reared as a vicar's son in Devon and educated at the University of Oxford, Dan is a comfortable atheist, a tentative socialist, and a skilled dialogue technician. He sees life through the distorting and limiting eyes of a film-maker, objectifying or reinventing reality to fit his needs. Accordingly, he can be quick and clever (and often evasive and patronizing) in real emotional situations; after a failed marriage, he has had numerous satisfying but double-edged romances. He is very self-aware and senses his alienation and the echoes of his past. In going to the deathbed of his estranged friend Anthony, Dan faces that past (what Anthony, Jane, Nell, and he meant to one another) and rediscovers lost honesty and passion, his love of nature, and his belief in meaningful art. In subsequent travels in England and the Middle East, he falls back in love with Jane, the one with whom he suspects he should have spent his life.

Jane Mallory, Dan's former sister-in-law. A forty-five-year-old widow, Jane emerges from years of unfulfilled marriage to Anthony a withdrawn, confused, and defensive woman. She is intelligent, well-spoken, and newly interested in Marxism and sociopolitical reform, but these sentiments cloak the internal battle to accept responsibility for the subterfuges of the past and to find a new direction in life. Jane is a deeply intuitive woman, responsive less to logic than to “right feeling” and as expressive in silence as in words. By accepting Dan's concern and, ultimately, his love, she becomes strong, open, and trusting once again.

Jenny McNeil, Dan's girlfriend. Jenny is a twenty-five-year-old British actress learning the ways of Hollywood. She is a shrewd and challenging woman who loves both Dan and the games and repartee their relationship entails. Modern and independent, with a sense of perspective and humor, Jenny turns bitter and sardonic when Dan ends their relationship.

Caroline (Caro) Martin, Dan and Nell's twenty-two-year-old daughter. Caro is a sensible, straightforward young woman who, though less sophisticated than she seems, is ready for the challenges of mature womanhood. She feels awkward with Dan but treasures the chance to grow closer; she has mixed feelings toward Nell and needs to establish her independence. She knows that her affair with her boss, Barney, could hurt her deeply, but she is willing to accept all risks and lessons.

Anthony Mallory, Dan's former best friend. Anthony is a brilliant philosopher and academic who faces death from cancer at the age of forty-five. A dogmatic Catholic, he broke with Dan years before over a play Dan wrote but has since come to a more sober, generous, and responsible view of life. After settling his conscience in a final interview with Dan about their shared history and his widow Jane's future, Anthony abruptly and mystifyingly takes his own life.

Nell Randall, Jane's sister and Dan's former wife. Nell, forty-four years old and happily remarried, is a woman of leisure and society. At base insecure, she thrives on propriety and decorum and needs to feel involved and in control of those around her.

Barney Dillon, an acquaintance of Dan from Oxford, now Caro's boss and lover. Barney is a British television personality who has grown bored with his marriage, cynical about his Fleet Street milieu, and disillusioned with his own transparent achievements.

Andrew Randall, another of Dan's Oxford acquaintances, now Nell's husband. Andrew is a supercilious aristocrat whose naturally hearty manner is often a welcome relief in tense family situations.

Rosamund (Roz) Mallory, Anthony and Jane's older daughter. Roz, a twenty-three-year-old research assistant with the British Broadcasting Corporation, is a self-possessed, level-headed, compassionate, and mature young woman.

Paul Mallory, Anthony and Jane's son, a withdrawn and taciturn schoolboy whose only apparent passion is for English field systems.

Nancy Reed, Dan's first love. Nancy is a chubby, blue-eyed Devon farm girl who loves adventure and delights in secret pleasures with Dan. Later, she reappears as a stout matron.

Abe Nathan, an older Jewish man, apparently lugubrious and obscene but essentially wise and bighearted. He is a veteran of the film industry. He and his wife, Mildred, lend Dan and Jenny their guest cottage in Los Angeles.

Mildred Nathan, his quietly supportive wife.

Ben and Phoebe, the simple, provincial old couple who inhabit and maintain Thorncombe, Dan's Devon farmhouse retreat.

Parson Martin, Dan's father, a rigid and humorless country vicar who loved gardening and opposed the display of emotion.

Millie Martin, Dan's simple, old-fashioned unmarried aunt and surrogate mother.

Professor Kirnberger, a brilliant, sensitive German Egyptologist whom Dan and Jane befriend on their Nile cruise.

Jimmy Assad, Dan's urbane Egyptian film contact and guide.