A Passion in Rome: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: Morley Callaghan

First published: 1961

Genre: Novel

Locale: Rome, Italy

Plot: Symbolic realism

Time: Autumn, 1958

Sam Raymond, a blue-eyed, solidly built man of thirty-nine who looks “rumpled but very clean.” He arrives in Rome to photograph the events surrounding the death of the pope, feeling intensely alone. His spiritual crisis is precipitated by his growing awareness that he will never realize his ambition to be a successful painter in a style different from that of his famous father. At loose ends, he wanders the streets and encounters a young woman, Anna, who soon proves to be an American singer. She becomes the most important thing in his life. With the pope's death and the conclave of cardinals to select the new pope, Raymond is torn between his professionalism and his involvement with Anna. He finds an appropriate place for her to sing and she becomes a hit again. With her newfound success, Anna draws away from him. She is persuaded by an American agent to return to the United States, and Raymond, at first angry and then despondent, finally realizes that her courage in returning to the scene of her failure and his contribution to making her whole again have given him the courage to accept his own talent as a photographer and to let go of his failed dream to be a painter.

Anna Connel, also known as Carla Caneli, an American singer whose career seemingly has ended. She is beautiful with irregular features: “Her mouth was too large, the lower lip drooping softly, her nose almost aquiline, and her eyes, almost too far apart, brown or hazel, shone and glittered.” Since the end of her career in America, Anna has become increasingly self-destructive. She assumes that Raymond's interest in her is sexual and makes love with him as soon as he takes her back to his apartment. Slowly, through Raymond's increasing signs of confidence in her, she begins to regain her confidence in herself. She stops drinking and begins to live a more regular life. As Raymond works for her redemption, she helps him to overcome his sense of aloneness by giving him a cause and a sense of being loved.

Francesca Winters, the Italian wife of an English journalist, whom she sees infrequently when he comes to Rome or she goes to London. She is a heavy woman of forty with a pretty face who works as a translator and guide. She serves Raymond and then his colleague Koster in that capacity and is instrumental in bringing Raymond and Anna together. Her genuine knowledge of Rome contrasts with Anna's haphazard and irregular fascination. She finds the club where Anna begins her comeback and arranges for Anna to sing there at Raymond's request.

Alberto Ruberto, a filmmaker in his fifties who, in spite of his good looks and sophistication, appears “tired and sick.” Although he has made one highly successful film, which won an award in Venice, he has not been able to work since his involvement with Anna. She is his excuse for not continuing with work that he finds increasingly demanding. He relinquishes Anna to Raymond with the awareness that her disgust in herself has made him apathetic about his own work, and he speaks of making deals to finance his new film, but he dies shortly afterward without realizing any of his plans.

Koster, an American journalist of considerable reputation who insists on the use of only one name. He is famous for his research and observes the pope's funeral by reading his notes on what is occurring rather than watching the events as they take place. He is a failure in his relations with other people, as his abortive relationship with another journalist, Miss Francis, shows. At the end of the novel, he remains untouched and unchanged in his isolation, in contrast to Raymond, whose experience with Anna has put him in touch with himself.