Infinite Jest: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: David Foster Wallace

First published: 1996

Genre: Novel

Locale: Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Boston and Enfield, Massachusetts

Plot: Absurdist

Time: First decade of twenty-first century

Harold “Hal” Incandenza, a young tennis player, the protagonist. At seventeen, he is tanned with slicked-back black hair that makes his dark face look small. He is sincere, loves his brothers, excels at tennis, and likes to smoke marijuana in secret. When he is twelve, his father disguises himself unsuccessfully as a conversationalist to get closer to him. At seventeen, he is enrolled at Enfield Tennis Academy (ETA), founded by his father and run by his mother and uncle. He excels as an athlete and is supportive of his physically disabled brother, Mario. He is close friends with the mischievous Michael Pemulis. Because of his marijuana habit, he enters Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House. At eighteen, he faces an admissions panel at the University of Arizona because of the stark discrepancy between his abysmal test scores and the high-quality papers he has submitted. Hal tries to justify himself, but his talk sounds like guttural gibberish to the staff.

Michael Pemulis, Hal's mischievous and imaginative best friend at Enfield Tennis Academy. He has an athletic body and favors a clean look. He cannot stand silence and has become a Big Buddy to younger tennis players. He has a penchant for buying strange, powerful drugs, and he likes to engage in long discussions about a wide range of topics with Hal. He serves as foil to Hal in his last year at the academy.

Orin Incandenza, Hal's oldest brother, a professional football player. He has a powerfully built body with an oversized left arm and big left leg, the latter from his days as a tennis player. At twenty-seven, he is the oldest of the Incandenza brothers, nine years older than Hal. He likes to engage in long, philosophical telephone talks with Hal. He has a phobia of cockroaches. He traps them under upturned glasses, asphyxiating them. He engages in sexual relations with a constant flux of young women he calls Subjects. In the end, he is caught by Quebec terrorists and interrogated about the master cartridge of his late father's lethal film.

Mario Incandenza, a physically disabled young filmmaker. The middle Incandenza brother, he was born prematurely. Thus, he has a tiny body but an oversized head and atrophied arms. He has khaki-colored skin. He has a sharp mind and is enrolled at Enfield Tennis Academy even though he cannot play tennis, rooming with his brother Hal. He produces documentaries of the academy's plays and events. He is Hal's confidante. Hal treats him like his little brother, calling him Booboo, even though Mario is older. He also excels at game theory. He was likely fathered by Charles Tavis.

Joelle Van Dyne, “Madame Psychosis,” the star of a lethal film and a cocaine addict born Lucille Duquette. She is of almost transhuman beauty, nicknamed the Prettiest Girl of All Time, or Prettiest GOAT, at college. There she falls in love with Orin Incandenza. Through Orin, she is introduced to his father, who has become a filmmaker. One Thanksgiving dinner, her mother throws acid in her face, disfiguring it; Joelle has worn a veil ever since. She is the star of the lethal movie Infinite Jest, which kills all that watch it. In it, she appears in the nude, with face veiled, as a figure of death. Later, Joelle works as Madame Psychosis for a student radio show. She enters Ennet House for rehabilitation after a failed suicide attempt. The government interrogates her, and she reveals that she never saw the lethal film in which she starred but that its master cartridge is buried with the director in what is now a toxic-waste dump.

Don Gately, a recovering drug addict and burglar. With a body described as that of a young dinosaur, he has a massive square head with a big square chin. He is a narcotics addict but develops into an introspective and supportive man. At twenty-seven, he accidentally kills a Canadian dignitary during a burglary. He enters Ennet House for rehabilitation and becomes a staffer there after his recovery. He befriends Joelle when she enters. He relives his life and reflects on the death of his friend, the con artist Gene Fackelmann.

Rémy Marathe, a Canadian quadruple agent working for the ONAN government. He has lost both his legs and uses a wheelchair. He joins a Quebec separatist organization, Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents (AFR), becoming a wheelchair assassin. He becomes an informer for ONAN, fighting the Canadian separatists. He tries to find the master cartridge of the lethal movie Infinite Jest.

Hugh/Helen Steeply, an ONAN agent and cross-dresser with prosthetic breasts. A government agent, he is driven by his desire to find the master cartridge of Infinite Jest. He has Joelle abducted and interrogates her. After learning that the movie was intended as a joke, that there is no antidote film, and that the master cartridge has been buried with its late director, he releases Joelle.

James Orin Incandenza, the maker of a lethal movie, the legal father of Hal, Orin, and Mario. In his youth, he is a tall, bespectacled tennis player. He earns his doctorate in optical physics and marries Avril Mondragon. He founds Enfield Tennis Academy but turns to avant-garde filmmaking. At fifty-four years old, after finishing Infinite Jest, he commits suicide by putting his head in a rigged microwave oven.

Avril Mondragon Incandenza, the domineering mother of the Incandenza brothers. Extremely tall and pretty, she is also high-strung. She marries the older James Incandenza. Her son Mario was likely fathered by her adoptive brother, Charles Tavis. She has many affairs, including some with the young male athletes of the academy. Because she was born in Canada and has sympathies for its Quebecois separatists, the ONAN government suspects (wrongly) that she is helping to spread the lethal film across America.

Charles Tavis, “C. T.,” the headmaster of Enfield Tennis Academy. He is physically small and suffers from compulsive hand movements after quitting smoking. He is full of energy and is considered a gifted bureaucrat. He is the adoptive brother of Avril Incandenza. The text suggests strongly that he fathered Mario Incandenza. After James Incandenza turns to filmmaking, C. T. takes over as headmaster. He accompanies eighteen-year-old Hal to his admission interview at the University of Arizona. He tries both to bully and to wheedle the admissions panel to accept Hal, but he is asked to leave the room so they can talk to Hal alone. After Hal's breakdown, C. T. helps him to an emergency room.

Rodney Tine Sr., “Rod the God,” the chief of the US Office of Unspecified Services. He has unremarkable features but has the compulsion of measuring his penis with a special metric ruler every morning. He becomes concerned about the lethal film and its potential effect on American people. He charges his agent Steeply to track down the master cartridge and possibly find an antidote film. In exchange for naming the next year after the Glad Corporation, he negotiates with the company to make a short film warning young people about the dangers of watching underground films such as Infinite Jest.

Lucien and Bertraund Antitoi, owners of a film-cartridge store in Boston. Both brothers are burly, but Bertraund is considered the brains. They are affiliated with a local Québec organization hostile to the more radical AFR. The Antitoi brothers are killed gruesomely by the AFR assassins who are looking for the master cartridge of Infinite Jest in the brothers' store.

Fortier, the US cell leader of the Quebec separatist movement AFR. Lacking both legs, he prefers moving in a wheelchair to wearing his prostheses, making him look more vulnerable. He commands the killing of the Antitoi brothers in his quest for the master cartridge of Infinite Jest. He wants to use the lethal movie to terrorize the United States so that the US-ally Canada will grant independence to Quebec. Fortier commands the AFR operation that entraps and captures Orin Incandenza.

John “No Relation” Wayne, a top tennis player at Enfield Tennis Academy. He has great athletic skills and is possibly on his way to becoming a professional player after graduating. He enters a romantic relationship with Avril Incandenza.

Ortho “the Darkness” Stice, a great tennis player at Enfield Tennis Academy and a friend of Hal. He nearly defeats Hal at a key match. He is obsessed with the dark side of life and humanity. Off the tennis court, he wears only black clothes. He and Hal like to hold deep philosophical conversations.

Patricia “Pat” Montesian, the head of Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House. She is alternately described as both pretty and not pretty because of the effects of a stroke she had when undergoing detoxification. She takes a liking to Joelle Van Dyne when the young woman enters Ennet House. She interviews the fake addict Agent Marathe and admits him to the Ennet House.

Gene “Fax” Fackelmann, a drug addict who cheats Whitey Sorkin, the bookie for whom he is working and for which he is killed. At twenty-three, he has a towering body with sloped shoulders, wide hips, and a pot belly; he is high-strung. In this function, he meets Don Gately, as the two young men serve as Sorkin's enforcers.

Katherine “Kate” Gompert, a young woman who uses marijuana excessively to fight her depression. She has average features and black hair. By twenty-one years old, she has been hospitalized for depression four times in the three years and has attempted suicide three times. Later, she moves to Ennet House to attempt recovery. There, she connects with some of its residents and explores the roots of her depression.

Ken Ederdy, a young white American addicted to marijuana. He worries that marijuana has weakened his facial muscles, making his face sag. He tries unsuccessfully to cure his addiction through a self-designed aversion therapy. This fails, and he enrolls at Ennet House to recover.