St. Urbain's Horseman: Analysis of Major Characters
"St. Urbain's Horseman" features a rich tapestry of characters grappling with personal and collective histories, particularly in the context of Jewish identity and guilt. The protagonist, Jacob (Jake) Hersh, is a Canadian director living in London, whose preoccupations with aging and mortality are compounded by his familial ties and the legacy of the Holocaust. His connection to his cousin, Joseph (Joey) Hersh, casts a long shadow over his life; Joey is viewed as a charming yet dangerous figure, admired by some for his charisma but distrusted for his unscrupulous ways.
Harry Stein, an accountant, embodies resentment and self-loathing, manipulating Jake's guilt over Joey's actions to entangle him in a legal crisis. The dynamic between Jake and his supportive friend, Luke Scott, reveals an undercurrent of rivalry, adding complexity to their friendship. Other characters, such as Ruthy Flam, represent the struggles of those marginalized or abandoned, while Jake's wife, Nancy, symbolizes the socio-cultural divides that amplify his insecurities. The presence of Duddy Kravitz, a self-made millionaire with a good heart, further influences Jake’s journey toward reclaiming his identity. Collectively, these characters navigate themes of guilt, identity, and the search for meaning against a backdrop of historical trauma.
St. Urbain's Horseman: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Mordecai Richler
First published: 1971
Genre: Novel
Locale: London and Montreal
Plot: Impressionistic realism
Time: The late 1960's, with flashbacks to earlier years
Jacob (Jake) Hersh, a Canadian film and television director in his late thirties, living and working in London. He is “modishly ugly” and obsessed with the deterioration of his body and an exaggerated fear of death and disease. He is happily married and has three children. His guilt, induced in large measure by a stereotypical “Jewish mother” and by his realization that, as a Canadian, he escaped the Holocaust and other miseries of World War II, causes him to become involved, against his better judgment, with Harry Stein. Guilt and the need for a hero motivate his fascination with his cousin, Joey, whom he imagines to be the Jewish avenger, St. Urbain's Horseman, named for the main street of the Jewish immigrant neighborhood in which Jake grew up. In London, Jake is often mistaken for Joey or asked to repay money that Joey has borrowed or stolen, including the life savings of Ruthy Flam, whom Joey had promised to marry. Pressured by Ruthy and her fiancé, Harry Stein, Jake settles Joey's debts and takes Joey's saddle and rifle, which he keeps in his attic studio. Jake returns from his father's funeral in Montreal to find Harry and a German girl he has picked up in a coffee bar using his home for an uninhibited sexual encounter. Incensed that they have used Joey's saddle as a prop and offended by the woman's nationality, Jake throws her out. Picked up by the police naked and obviously under the influence of drugs, the woman charges both Harry and Jake with rape. Jake is acquitted of all but the most minor of the charges and fined.
Joseph (Joey) Hersh, who is seen only through the memories and stories of other characters. He is the handsome, daring black sheep of the Hersh family. He is admired by the younger family members for his looks, his varied career as a professional baseball player and a movie extra, and his success with women, but he is feared and mistrusted by the more conventional, older Hershes. There is much evidence that Joey is a con man and a thief, but his mother, Hanna, and cousin Jake continue to believe that he is a hero on the trail of escaped Nazis. At the novel's end, word reaches Jake that Joey has died in a plane crash in Paraguay while smuggling cigarettes, but Jake recalls that Paraguay is the reputed hideout of Dr. Joseph Mengele, a notorious war criminal.
Harry Stein, an accountant in the offices of Oscar Hoffman, who specializes in show business accounts. Harry is small in stature and unattractive, with thin, dry hair, splotchy skin, and bad teeth. He is hostile, jealous, and resentful, blaming his lack of success in business and personal relations on a social system that discriminates against the poor. He is obsessed with sex but unable to establish a relationship. He spends his time with pornographic books and in sexually explicit “photo studies,” where he photographs live models. Harry has been in trouble with the law for attempted extortion and attempted murder, both crimes motivated by his resentment of more fortunate people. Harry uses his inside information about Jake's finances and Jake's guilt about Joey's mistreatment of Ruthy to force himself into Jake's life, finally involving him in the trial for rape that is the central crisis of the novel. Harry's only legitimate accomplishment is his membership in Mensa, an organization for the intellectually gifted. He challenges Jake to take the test for admission to the group, and Jake's sense of insecurity is enhanced when he fails.
Luke Scott, a playwright, fashionably slender and handsome. He is the son of a Canadian senator. He and Jake left Canada together to seek success in London. Luke is more successful than Jake both commercially and artistically. Although the two remain close friends and Luke is especially supportive during Jake's trial, the unspoken rivalry between the two forms an important subplot in the novel.
Ruth (Ruthy) Flam, a plump woman in her forties who works in a dress shop to support her children after being deserted by their father. She is a natural victim, seduced and abandoned by Joey and used by Harry to get money from Jake. She enters contests compulsively, and Jake guiltily buys products that he cannot use so that he can give her the labels to use in contest entries. After Harry is sentenced to jail for rape, she finds a new and equally unsatisfactory man.
Nancy Croft Hersh, Jake's beautiful, dark-haired, long-legged wife. Her upper-middle-class Protestant background intrigues Jake but also adds to his sense of insecurity, as do the innocent attentions of his friend Luke Scott. Jake's father broke off all contact with his son because of his marriage to a non-Jew, adding to Jake's sense of guilt.
Duddy Kravitz, another St. Urbain's Street boy, a crude, self-made millionaire with a shrewd understanding of human nature and a generous heart. He appears at important moments to give Jake confidence. His freely given check for $10,000 to tide Jake over after the trial inspires Jake to take up his life again.