Mickelsson's Ghosts: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: John Gardner

First published: 1982

Genre: Novel

Locale: Binghamton, New York, and Susquehanna, Pennsylvania

Plot: Psychological realism

Time: 1980–1981

Peter J. Mickelsson, the novel's center of consciousness, an internationally known professor of philosophy specializing in ethics. He has recently left Providence, Rhode Island, and his wife to take a position at the State University of New York at Binghamton in the hopes of putting his life back in order. Having suffered one nervous breakdown, Mickelsson appears on the verge of another as he struggles with his wife's long-distance demands, the Internal Revenue Service, alcohol, and his own stalled career. Essentially an idealist, he wears his newly donned armor of irony and cynicism rather self-consciously as he tries to overcome feelings of guilt and responsibility for his mounting personal and professional failures. The division within his personality becomes steadily more pronounced as he divides his time, mind, and energies between the university and rural Susquehanna, Pennsylvania; between the classes he teaches (badly, he believes) and the farmhouse he has recently bought and is in the process of renovating; between a beautiful colleague, Jessica Stark, and a local prostitute, Donnie Matthews; between Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Luther; between reality and hallucination; and ultimately between faith and hope on one hand and despair on the other. As he grows increasingly detached from others, both geographically and emotionally, he becomes progressively but uneasily amoral in his actions. He is finally saved by his own self-questioning, by the faith that others continue to have in him, by his willingness to cry out and to pray— even though prayer runs counter to the evidence of the rational, existential mind—and finally by what may be telepathy or simply luck.

Ellen, Mickelsson's wife, whose faith in Mickelsson turns to bitterness, buttressed by her acceptance of the fashionable view that she is Mickelsson's victim. Instead of struggling against the world, she gives in to it, drawing support from her work in modern theater.

Leslie, Mickelsson's daughter. She lives with her mother but bears no grudge against her father.

Mark, Mickelsson's son, an idealist actively involved in protecting the environment. Ironically, Mickelsson's land and the area around it turn out to be chemically contaminated as a result of the illegal dumping of toxic waste.

Mickelsson's father, a farmer and expert amateur carpenter who represents for Mickelsson the wholeness, selflessness, and nobility of character he has lost in his own life. The father appears only in Mickelsson's memories.

Dr. Rifkin, the Providence psychiatrist whose remarks Mickelsson often recalls from their sessions together—sessions he now continues in his mind. He does not find Rifkin's psychiatric explanations convincing.

Finney, the Providence lawyer who is handling Mickelsson's divorce. Jovially cynical, he finds his client's guilt and generosity unrealistic and oddly humorous.

John Pearson, Mickelsson's taciturn neighbor. A dowser and former dairy farmer, he accepts the world's strangeness in the same way that he has accepted his wife's death from cancer one year earlier.

Owen Thomas, the friendly owner of a Susquehanna hardware store. Like many of the other townspeople, he seems to trust Mickelsson instinctively.

Donnie Matthews, a blonde, buxom teenage prostitute with whom Mickelsson has an affair. Claiming to be pregnant with his child, she extorts fifteen thousand dollars from him. She phones Mickelsson much later in the novel to say that she threw the money in the ocean (Mickelsson had stolen it), had an abortion (against Mickelsson's wishes, though he now approves), and has decided to lead a very different life, thanks to his influence and example.

Jessica Stark, the only member of the university's sociology department who is not a Marxist. Tall, beautiful, intelligent, and widowed, she has an affair with Mickelsson. Despite his thinking of her as his salvation and despite her attempts to help him put his life in order, he abandons Jessica when her Marxist colleagues try to oust her from the department. It is to her, however, that Mickelsson goes at the end of the novel to escape madness by rejoining the human community.

Michael Nugent, a lonely and rather demanding student who tries to befriend and model himself on Mickelsson. He sees himself as a clown, as someone who is not entirely human but only pretends to be. His death, at first assumed to be a suicide, proves to be a murder.

Professor Warren, Nugent's chemistry instructor and “friend,” a former Mormon. His suspicions about chemical contamination cause him to become interested in the house Mickelsson now owns, a house believed to be connected to the Mormon founder, Joseph Smith. Lawler murders Warren because he mistakenly believes that Warren is trying to find evidence that will discredit Smith.

Alan Blassenheim, the brightest and most idealistic of Mickelsson's students. His idealism does not prevent him from jilting his girlfriend, Brenda Winburn.

Brenda Winburn, a member of the university swim team and, until her affair with Alan Blassenheim, the class nihilist. She thinks of Mickelsson's class as a kind of church and thus an alternative to a world made in the image of her bickering parents. Jilted by her boyfriend, she gets drunk and turns to Mickelsson for help.

Charles Lepatofsky, the wife of Tim's cousin. The short, fat, cheerful man sells Mickelsson a Jeep. It is his four-or five-year-old daughter, Lily, who hears Mickelsson's prayer and therefore saves his life.

The fat man, who is nearly blind. He lives in the same building as Donnie. In 1965, he stole from a bank the money that Mickelsson in turn steals from him. During the break-in, the fat man suffers a fatal heart attack.

Theodosia Sprague and Caleb Sprague, the brother and sister who previously owned Mickelsson's farmhouse. Mickelsson either sees or imagines their ghosts. Caleb murdered their child; she in turn murdered him and was subsequently hanged for the crime.

Tacky Tinklepaugh, a Susquehanna policeman. In his fifties, he is poorly paid, a heavy drinker, and cynical but also heroic. He believes in maintaining a balance among human beings and between humankind and nature. Although he suspects that Mickelsson may have been responsible for the fat man's death, he chooses not to make an arrest.

Edward Lawler, a specialist in medieval philosophy who is entirely devoted to his work. Distressed by Ludwig Wittgenstein's views on the purpose and nature of philosophy in the modern world, he sets out to preserve the letter of idealism (as a fiction, anyway) even as he violates its spirit. Having no family and no friends, he is also a religious fanatic—one of a secret band of Mormon killers, the Danites, or Sons of Dan—and is responsible for the deaths of Nugent and Warren. He forces Mickelsson at gunpoint to tear his house apart to find the evidence Mickelsson knows does not exist but that Lawler fears will discredit Mormonism's sacred texts. His plan is foiled, and he is arrested.

Tim Booker, a young real estate agent who arranges the sale of Dr. Bauer's farmhouse to Mickelsson. A former medic in Vietnam, Tim rides a motorcycle, practices witchcraft (white magic), and is a closet environmentalist. He introduces Mickelsson to his “cousin,” Donnie Matthews, and to Lepatofsky.