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Gabriel Conroy
A middle-aged literature professor from Dublin who is the main character of the story. Gabriel is a controlling man and a social performer but his ability to charm other people is highly situational.
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Gretta Conroy
Gabriel’s wife and the mother of their two children. Gretta used to live with her grandmother in Galway in her youth where she fell in love with a boy named Micheal Furey who died when he was seventeen.
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Kate Morkan and Julia Morkan
Gabriel and Mary Jane's aunts. They are elderly sisters who are musically inclined. They throw a party every year during Christmas time and the majority of the short story takes place at said party.
Mary Jane Morkan
Niece to Kate and Julia Morkan who has lived with them since she was very young. Like her aunts, she is also musically inclined and earns a living by giving organ lessons.
Lily
The caretaker's daughter who does housework for the Morkans. She takes offense to Gabriel when he arrives at the party after he asks her about her love life.
Molly Ivors
A teacher and a long-time friend of the Morkans. She is devoutly proud of her Irish heritage and clashes with Gabriel who she feels does not properly embrace his Irishness.
Mr. Browne
A party guest and the only Protestant in the text. Mr. Browne is a flirt and he tries desperately to impress the younger women at the party.
Freddy Malins
An alcoholic party guest. He is a friend of the family but the Morkans are upset by his drinking, and they send Gabriel to sober him up so that he does not disturb the other guests.
Mrs. Malins
Freddy Malins' mother. She lives in Glasgow with her daughter and her son-in-law but made the trip to Dublin to visit her friends and family.
Bartell D’Arcy
A party guest and the leading contralto for his opera company. He sings the song “The Lass of Aughrim” which reminds Gretta of Michael Furey, who used to sing that song to her before he died.
Michael Furey
The boy that Gretta loved in her youth in Galway. He died at age seventeen, before the events of the text take place. Gretta partially blames herself for his death because he snuck out in the cold while sick to say goodbye to her before she left Galway to go to school.
