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Robin Swift

A Chinese student studying translation and silver-working at Babel, and the protagonist of the novel. Robin’s abduction from China at a young age symbolizes the erasure of native cultures as a result of imperialism. Throughout the text, he is torn between aiding a nation that preys on his homeland and choosing to do something about it at the cost of his future. His transformation from a timid, compliant, willfully ignorant cog in a machine to a vengeful, justice-seeking rebel occurs gradually, as the many layers of the British Empire’s violence are revealed to him throughout the text.

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Victoire Desgraves

A Haitian student studying translation and silver-working at Babel, and a member of Robin's cohort. Victoire is level-headed, calm, genuinely kind, and principled. She has a strong moral compass, eventually rendering her unable to continue enabling the Empire's colonial expansion. After fully committing to the Hermes Society, she never strays, nor allows personal tragedy or a need for revenge to cloud her judgement. The spirit of rebellion lives on in Victoire and more than any other character, she symbolizes the ongoing, relentless fight for justice.

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Ramiz "Ramy" Rafi Mirza

An Indian student from Calcutta studying translation and silver-working at Babel, and a member of Robin's cohort. Ramy is the first person Robin meets at Oxford, and the boys form an instant bond. He is charismatic and outspoken, embracing British stereotypes about Indians so as to take control of his own narrative, and serves as a foil to Robin, who does his best to blend in.

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Letitia "Letty" Price

A British student studying translation and silver-working at Babel and a member of Robin's cohort. Letty serves as a primary symbol of privilege and bias, unable to empathize with experiences beyond her own. She also reflects the unwillingness to sacrifice one's comforts or future for the sake of justice, and possesses an intense victim complex that forces the rest of her cohort to comfort her when she is confronted with evidence of her own prejudice.

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Professor Richard Lovell

A professor at Babel and father to two illegitimate children, Robin and Griffin. Lovell serves as an antagonist within the novel. He is stern, detached, racist, and at times ruthlessly cruel to Robin. He also staunchly defends Britain's colonial expansion. His abduction of Robin from China symbolizes the British Empire's predatory and exploitative attitude, asserting its right to steal foreign resources and languages for its own benefit, and using them to further imperial expansion.

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Griffin Lovell

A former Babel student and current member of the Hermes Society. Griffin is Professor Lovell's son, and Robin's half-brother, and he recruits Robin to join Hermes after a chance encounter in the street while stealing silver. He is a firm supporter of violence as a necessary component of revolution.

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Anthony Ribben

A postgraduate student at Babel. Anthony is a strong symbol of colonial resistance and the refusal to remain silent in times of great injustice. Well-liked, level-headed, and steadfast in his beliefs, Anthony is a mentor to younger students. He favors a strategic, nonviolent approach to revolution and serves as proof that Oxford sees its foreign students as expendable and replaceable when news of his disappearance reaches Babel.

Professor Jerome Playfair

A translations professor at Babel. He is knowledgeable, passionate, and a great speaker. Initially, he appears merely scholarly and academic, inspired by the idiosyncrasies of translation and aiming to bridge the gap between languages, unifying those from different backgrounds. However, Playfair winds up being as staunch a defender of the British Empire and colonial expansion as Lovell. He cares for unity only in the sense of consolidating British power and resources. This reveal underscores the idea that racism at Oxford is systematic and foundational.

Professor Anand Chakravarti

Robin's advisor and a professor at Babel. Unlike other Oxford professors that belittle foreign students, Chakravarti shows Robin respect, treating him more like a colleague than a student. With Chakravarti's unwavering ethics, he also exists as a foil to Robin later in the novel, embodying the philosophy that when violence turns personal or vengeful, it loses its meaning. Chakravarti also offers crucial foreshadowing when he shows Robin Babel's silver resonance bars. 

Professor Margaret Craft

A Latin professor at Babel. Though initially stern and unyielding, Craft is a deeply moral character and winds up siding with Hermes. When Oxford's ruthless racism is revealed to her, she is the only white character in the text who not only listens, but readily accepts it as truth, even acknowledging her own complicity and ignorance and the role she played in upholding an unjust system.

Abel Goodfellow

A working-class laborer who rallies against Babel and later joins Robin's strike. Abel’s character is the personification of Anthony's argument that the poor and middle-class of England have more in common with foreign minorities than they do with those in Parliament. When those groups band together, they stand a higher chance at defying injustice.

Eveline "Evie" Brooke

A former Babel student. Her desk remains at Babel, and Letty is scolded by Professor Playfair when she attempts to sit at it one day during class. Her name is spoken with reverence at Babel for her intelligence and her silver-working efforts. Robin and his friends locate her grave at a cemetery and later learn she was murdered. While alive, she aligned herself with Babel in spite of its blatant corruption in a character arc mirrors Letty’s.

Commissioner Lin Zexu

The Imperial Commissioner of China. A figure from history known for his opposition to the opium trade, Lin Zexu resists Britain's unjust trading practices, and the inclusion of his character demonstrates the extent of Britain’s deception and manipulation.

Mr. Baylis

A British trading representative. He is superficial and amoral, making racist comments about the Chinese and prioritizing British economic gain over the well-being of Chinese civilians. 

Sterling Jones

A faculty member at Babel. Sterling is ruthless and arrogant, unapologetically defending Oxford and condemning minorities while showing no qualms about resorting to physical violence to get what he wants. He possesses a distinct lack of empathy, and maintains an unwavering sense of white supremacy. 

Ibrahim

A student at Babel who joins Robin and Victoire's strike, his morality outweighing any prior allegiance to Oxford. As he begins to keep a written chronicle of the strike from their side's perspective, his character comes to symbolize the necessity for alternative records of history when mainstream accounts erase or misrepresent the truth.

Yusuf

A student at Babel and a member of Robin and Victoire's strike. The implication that Yusuf leaves the strike to go home to his native country suggests he’s taking back what the British Empire robbed him of. It also reflects an alternative form of defiance: returning home and rejecting Oxford's lie that foreign students have no chance at a fulfilling life outside of an Oxford education becomes a powerful act of resistance in itself.

Juliana

A Babel student who aligns herself with the strike against the British Empire. She becomes very close with Ibrahim.

Meghana

A Babel student who joins the strike against the British Empire.

Mrs. Piper

A kind and nurturing woman who works for Professor Lovell and helps raise Robin in England. She embodies the ties to England and Oxford that Robin dreads giving up when his conscience begins to weigh on him. She is among the first things that Robin falls in love with in England, fostering a genuine connection with her and bonding with her over things like scones.

Elton Pendennis

A rich, privileged, and pretentious student at Babel whose intellect is highly performative and who considers foreigners as inferior. 

Mr. Felton

Robin's Latin instructor, marking the start of Robin's journey toward an education at Babel.

Mr. Chester

A strict, harsh man who gives Robin lessons in Greek, laying the groundwork for his education at Babel. When Robin misses one of his lessons, Professor Lovell punishes him.

Miss Elizabeth "Betty" Slate

The Englishwoman who helps raise Robin in Canton. Lovell paid her to teach the boy English while also helping him maintain his native Cantonese. She reflects Lovell's early attempts to anglicize Robin and groom him for an Oxford education.

Vimal Srinivasan, Cathy O'Nell, and Ilse Dejima

Former Babel students and members of the Hermes Society who were unable to turn a blind eye to Babel's injustice.

Colin Thornhill, Bill Jameson, and Edgar and Edward Sharp

Students at Oxford and neighbors of Robin and Ramy. Their prejudiced, racist attitudes toward the boys cause Robin and Ramy to acknowledge their status as outsiders, understanding that at Oxford, there will be a "them and us."

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