The Ginger Man: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Ginger Man" is a novel centered around the tumultuous life of Sebastian Balfe Dangerfield, a former American soldier attending law school in Dublin after World War II. Dangerfield, at twenty-seven, prioritizes a lifestyle filled with drinking, brawling, and schemes, often at the expense of his responsibilities and relationships. His wife, Marion, is portrayed as disillusioned by his reckless behavior and vacillates between leaving and reuniting with him, ultimately seeking refuge with her parents. Dangerfield’s best friend, Kenneth O’Keefe, provides comic relief as he navigates his own struggles with poverty and unfulfilled aspirations.
The novel also features Christine, a young woman who briefly becomes involved with Dangerfield before rejecting his manipulative nature, and Lilly Frost, a landlady who falls victim to Dangerfield's seduction and emotional cruelty. Mary Maloney, another significant character, becomes infatuated with Dangerfield and attempts to escape her abusive family life to be with him, illustrating the destructive patterns of their relationship. Percy Clocklan and Egbert Skully add to the narrative's complexity—Clocklan embodies a transient connection through friendship, while Skully represents the oppressive weight of Dangerfield's debts and responsibilities. Overall, the characters in "The Ginger Man" reflect themes of escapism, exploitation, and the chaotic pursuit of identity in post-war Dublin.
The Ginger Man: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: J. P. Donleavy
First published: 1955, expurgated; 1963, unexpurgated
Genre: Novel
Locale: Dublin, Ireland, and London, England
Plot: Picaresque
Time: The late 1940's
Sebastian Balfe Dangerfield, a former American soldier attending Trinity College law school after World War II. He is a twenty-seven-year-old who is less concerned with academic pursuits than with drinking, brawling, wenching, and thieving his way through Dublin. He assumes a series of personae in hopes of escaping detection and entrapment. Although he longs for wealth and respectability, his chaotic life ensures poverty. Just as a fortune seems within his grasp after his father's death, Dangerfield learns that the will stipulates holding his inheritance in a trust for twenty years.
Marion Dangerfield, Dangerfield's disenchanted British wife. Tall and slender, with long, blond hair, she frequently quarrels with her husband over his dissolute ways. Although she leaves him repeatedly, they always reunite, until finally she prevails on his father to send her money. She then escapes to her parents in Scotland.
Kenneth O'Keefe, a former Harvard student who is Dangerfield's best friend. Twenty-seven years old and destitute, O'Keefe is frustrated by his poverty and sexual privation. He leaves for France with great expectations, later returns to Dublin, and then embarks for the United States. His many humorous letters of defeat and travail punctuate the narrative.
Christine, a twenty-five-year-old laundry worker and former psychology student at London University. With fair skin, dark hair and lips, and a mellow voice, she is attracted to Dangerfield and has an affair with him before Marion leaves. Eventually, she tires of his exploitative ways and will have nothing more to do with him.
Lilly Frost, an unmarried Roman Catholic woman who rents a room from the Dangerfields. A botanist for a seed company, she is thirty-four years old, with a medium build and large teeth. After his wife leaves him, Dangerfield seduces and then uses and humiliates Frost until she is forced to return to a corrupt aunt. Because of her Catholicism, she is wracked with guilt, for which Dangerfield has little sympathy.
Mary Maloney, a young woman dedicated to rearing her brothers and serving her abusive father. She is short and stocky, with green eyes and long, black hair. Dangerfield is immediately attracted to her. After Mary and Dangerfield sleep together, she vows to leave her father and join Dangerfield in London. In London later, and after he berates her, she loses weight and begins a career in films and resumes her fitful romance with Dangerfield.
Percy Clocklan, a short, bullish man who is one of Dangerfield's drinking companions. He invites Dangerfield to the party where Dangerfield meets Mary. Later, Clocklan is believed to have committed suicide by jumping from a mail ship. A destitute Dangerfield meets him on the streets of London, where the now-wealthy Clocklan outfits and takes care of Dangerfield.
Egbert Skully, a former landlord of Dangerfield who hounds him through most of the novel for back rent and repairs on a damaged house. Middle-aged and dressed in black, Skully is symbolic of death and entrapment, and Dangerfield goes to hilarious lengths to avoid the man.