The Little Hotel: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Little Hotel: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the intricate dynamics between the diverse characters residing in a Swiss hotel, each embodying unique traits and conflicts. Madame Bonnard serves as the narrator, offering insight into her life as the hotel manager and her interactions with guests, including her suspicions about her friend Julie's intentions towards her husband, Roger. Roger, depicted as a chain-smoking figure with a penchant for spying, navigates his own moral ambiguities, particularly when handling the finances of a guest, Miss Abbey-Chillard.
Lilia Trollope's story stands out, highlighting her struggles with her partner Robert Wilkins, who exploits her financially while refusing to commit. Lilia's friendships, notably with Madame Blaise and Miss Abbey-Chillard, reveal her kindness amidst societal judgments, particularly from Mrs. Powell, whose racism adds tension to the narrative. The colorful cast also includes eccentric and comedic figures like Princess Bili and the Mayor of B., whose quirks provide a lighter contrast to the more serious themes of love, betrayal, and identity that permeate the hotel environment. The interplay of these characters offers a reflection on human relationships and the complexities of social interactions within a confined setting.
The Little Hotel: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Christina Stead
First published: 1973
Genre: Novel
Locale: Switzerland
Plot: Social realism
Time: The 1940's, after World War II
Madame Bonnard, the narrator, the wife of Roger and mother of Olivier. At the age of twenty-six, she runs the Hotel-Swiss-Touring, a fourth-class establishment. She is gossipy and sometimes friendly with her hotel guests, especially the “permanent” guests. She suspects her best friend, Julie, of trying to have an affair with Roger, and she judges Julie to be jealous and malicious.
Roger, her husband, who spies on the guests, usually discreetly. He chain-smokes and makes sure that he has a night out now and then. Although it is against Swiss law, he searches the belongings of Miss Abbey-Chillard, who has not paid her bill, and finds enough money to settle her account.
Mrs. Lilia Trollope, the character whose story is most fully explored, an Englishwoman who is divorced from her husband and living with Robert Wilkins under the pretext that he is her cousin. Lilia's central conflict is that Robert will not marry her, although he lives off her money, claiming to manage it for her. She also complains of having nothing to do and of being ignored: Robert reads the newspaper at meals instead of talking to her. Mrs. Powell, an American racist, suspects Lilia of being Eurasian (Lilia's mother was a Dutch-Javanese), and the narrator says that the Wilkinses do not want their blood mixed with that of a half-caste. Lilia is friendly with Madame Blaise, although she suspects the Blaises of somehow wanting to harm her. She is kind to Miss Abbey-Chillard, despite Robert's annoyance, and gives her money to go to Zermatt to die with her friends. Lilia is religious, often going to church to pray to her saints for guidance. Her central decision, which the Princess Bili helps Lilia make, is to leave Robert and to return to England and her grown children. Even in leaving Robert, however, Lilia says that she has had a true love.
Mr. Robert Wilkins, a retired man who follows the stock market and currency fluctuations. He lives with Lilia Trollope and has control of her money, as well as power of attorney over her. Robert says that he is a natural bachelor and does not want to be responsible for anyone else. When his sister comes to visit, Robert tells Lilia to make believe that she does not know him. Robert believes that Lilia will never leave him because she would be terrified to live on her own. When she does leave, he vows to keep her capital and to tell her to come abroad again.
Madame Blaise, Lilia's closest friend for most of the novel, a rich woman married to a doctor who brings her drugs when he visits every second weekend. Wilkins says that she also takes drugs that the doctor does not supply. Tall and heavy, with blue eyes and straight white hair, Madame Blaise is called rude and selfish. She would prefer that her son in America die rather than get married. The money that she has sequestered in America probably originally belonged to Nazis. She tells Lilia that she is afraid that if she goes back with the doctor to their house in Basel, she will die, a prediction that comes true.
Dr. Blaise, a sinister man who passes around to his friends photographs of deformed patients who are naked. He is a brisk, elderly, dark-haired man. When Wilkins, Mrs. Trollope, and the Blaises go out to dinner together, the doctor runs up the bill that Wilkins will have to pay and calls him a little rubber salesman. He ensures that Madame Blaise will come home by refusing to bring her any more “medicine.” Madame Blaise accuses her husband of having married her for her money. Soon after her death, he marries the ugly, surly housekeeper Ermyntrud to inherit Madame Blaise's money.
Princess Bili di Rovino, a rich old American widow of an Italian prince. She plans to travel to Argentina to have an operation that will make her young again. In her sixties, with bright yellow hair and blue eyes, the princess plans to marry a thirty-three-year-old Spaniard, but he eventually decides that he wants a younger woman. She takes with her to restaurants her pet Sealyham terrier, Angel, who she claims can sing. Although she is eccentric and vain, the princess is kind to Lilia and tries to get Wilkins to marry her. She tells Lilia to refuse to bring out any more money from England until Wilkins agrees to marriage.
The Mayor of B., a high-ranking official of a Belgian city who has come to Switzerland for treatment for a nervous breakdown. Almost completely a comic character, the mayor has only one serious theme, his aversion to Germans, which brings denials of allegiance from all the Swiss-Germans working at the hotel. The mayor writes many numbered documents, and he continually buys champagne, which he drinks with the servants. Serious trouble ensues only when the mayor takes to going out naked except for a hat and a muffler.
Miss Abbey-Chillard, a tall, thin Englishwoman, an invalid whom Lilia befriends. She specializes in being pathetic, complaining that any help she is given is not quite right.
Mrs. Powell, a partly deaf, old American woman who campaigns to get rid of Mrs. Trollope and objects to black guests eating in the dining room.
Clara, the lively Swiss-German housekeeper. She has a cheerful red and yellow face.
Luisa, the Italian maid, who has a tubercular sister. Luisa is emotional and tries to teach the guests Italian.
Charlie, the porter, a Frenchman who in his earlier days sailed all over the world. He has a bad police record, the result of his fondness for young girls.