Stoner

Edith is Stoner’s wife. She comes from a wealthy banking family, but her privilege doesn’t prepare her for the realities of her life. Edith is well-educated, but as a woman in the early to mid-20th century, there is little that Edith can do with that education. Edith is subconsciously raised to use her sexuality to get ahead, even though Edith is very much out of touch with her sexuality. Edith marries Stoner very quickly even though they don’t know one another well and Stoner is unable to provide her the same lifestyle her father has provided for her. Edith’s quick marriage to Stoner is indicative of her desire to find autonomy as a woman, which she ironically believes she’ll discover through being a wife and having a home of her own. Edith is a somewhat round and somewhat dynamic character.

Edith becomes even more trapped, and her future is cut off from her. She regrets the marriage and spends decades unhappily married to Stoner, taking her resentments out on him and trying to break him off from the people and things that he loves. Edith is an antagonistic character, but she is also sympathetic because it is clear that she has depression, post-partum depression, chronic dissatisfaction, and lack of intellectual and creative stimulation.

Hollis Lomax is Stoner’s colleague and an antagonist in the novel. Hollis is first introduced through his characterization of arrogance. He sees himself as better than the other professors in his department, and he doesn’t care about boundaries, such as when he kisses Edith in front of Stoner and all his guests at a party Stoner hosts. Hollis’s arrogance, in the book’s view, is in part a mask to protect himself from the judgment of others because he has a physical disability. Hollis is ambitious and holds power and sway in the department. Thus, when he starts a feud with Stoner over a perceived slight, he abuses his power and seeks to destroy Stoner’s career and personal life. Hollis is petty, aggressive, tyrannical, and he embodies the stereotype of academic conflict. Hollis’s decades-long feud with Stoner is one-sided and so absurd that it provides some comic relief to the novel. Hollis is somewhat flat and static in the novel.

Gordon Finch is one of Stoner’s first friends. Finch is introduced through his characterization as someone who is charming but not as smart as other scholars. This characterization foreshadows Finch’s future as a Dean at the university; he doesn’t become a scholar because his charm gets him farther in his career. Finch presents himself as stereotypically masculine; he joins the army for World War I and judges Stoner for not doing the same because Finch sees war as a man’s duty to his country. That Stoner stays behind in the safety bubble of the university while Finch and others train for war is something that buoys Finch’s ego and forever separates Stoner and Finch. They come back together again after the war and have a friendship throughout their lives, but Finch is in a position of power, and therefore their friendship never gets deeper. Later in the novel, Finch is characterized through his loyalty to Stoner as he stands up for Stoner against Hollis. In the final chapters of the novel, Finch’s friendship is highlighted as he is there for Stoner during his slow death from cancer. In some ways, Finch is the foil to Stoner, but in other ways, they are similar men whose bond is one of both convenience and genuine, authentic respect. Finch is somewhat round but static.

Grace is Stoner’s daughter. Stoner develops a deep and close relationship with Grace when she is a child because Edith refuses to take care of her. Grace is the person that receives the deep love Stoner carries within him. In her childhood, she enjoys being quiet with her father in his study. Stoner even sets up a little desk for Grace in his study so they can be together. But Grace becomes a pawn in Edith’s resentment against Stoner. When Edith discovers how close Edith and Stoner are, she separates them and forces Grace into more socializing with her peers. This effectively ends Grace’s close relationship with her father, though they both remember their happy years together. Grace silently rebels against the control of her mother and the unhappy home she lives in by getting pregnant out of wedlock. This pregnancy and the hasty marriage that follows is yet another event in a series of disappointments. Grace repeats the resigned and unhappy cycle role modeled by her parents. She has an alcohol addiction, loses her husband to World War II, and resigns herself to her typical and unhappy life. She shows change throughout the novel and is somewhat round.