Homo Faber: A Report: Analysis of Major Characters
**Homo Faber: A Report: Analysis of Major Characters Overview**
"Homo Faber" is a novel centered around Walter Faber, a Swiss engineer whose life is steeped in rationality, technology, and a dismissal of emotional connections. As he reflects on his past while facing a serious medical condition, the narrative unfolds through his retrospective lens, revealing his struggles with commitment, particularly in his relationships with women. Key characters include Ivy, Faber's current lover who yearns for a deeper bond, and Hanna Piper, a woman he abandoned two decades earlier, who confronts him and illustrates his unresolved past. Complicating matters further, Faber unknowingly falls in love with his own daughter, Elisabeth (Sabeth), who embodies impulsiveness and artistry, contrasting sharply with his logical worldview. Additionally, Faber encounters Joachim Hencke, an old friend whose tragic fate underscores themes of loss and guilt. The novel explores profound questions about human connection, responsibility, and the impact of choices made over a lifetime, inviting readers to reflect on the balance between rationality and emotion.
Homo Faber: A Report: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Max Frisch
First published: Homo Faber: Ein Bericht, 1957 (English translation, 1959)
Genre: Novel
Locale: New York, Central America, and Europe
Plot: Psychological realism
Time: April to July, 1957
Walter Faber, a Swiss engineer working for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He is a fifty-year-old man who sees life only in terms of human rationality and technology and what is predictable by the laws of logical deduction. He discounts fate and chance as well as the imaginative and artistic sides of the personality. Faber has had lifelong difficulties in committing himself to emotional relationships with women. The novel is narrated by him in retrospect as he lies in the hospital, about to undergo an operation for a serious stomach ailment, perhaps cancer. His stomach problems grow worse throughout his chronicle, and the prognosis for the success of his operation at the novel's conclusion is not good.
Ivy, Faber's twenty-six-year-old lover in New York. As her name suggests, she is “clinging” and desires a more permanent commitment from the engineer; however, he seeks to break off their relationship.
Hanna Piper, a Swiss archaeologist whom Faber abandoned twenty years earlier. He got her pregnant and, fearing any attachment, urged her to get an abortion. Without his knowledge, she gave birth to the child and married Faber's friend. The child, Faber's daughter, is the young woman he falls in love with on the ocean voyage. Hanna's confrontation with Faber at the end of the novel becomes a revelation of his personal failures in life.
Elisabeth (Sabeth), a twenty-year-old student and Faber's lover as well as his illegitimate daughter. She is a very impulsive and artistic individual. In her love affair with Faber, she brings out the emotional and intuitive sides of his personality.
Joachim Hencke, the Swiss owner of a plantation in Guatemala. He is Faber's former friend who married the pregnant Hanna when Faber abandoned her twenty years earlier. He commits suicide, and Faber finds his body near the beginning of the novel.
Herbert Hencke, a fellow airplane passenger with Faber at the beginning of the novel; he turns out to be Joachim's brother. He persuades Faber to travel to the Guatemalan jungle in search of Joachim.