DESCRIPTION OF CHARACTERS
Reading edition
Pa Fishyer, the janitor of the building, is a man of about fifty. He speaks in curt, terse sentences, and is continually grumbling under his breath. He is easily angered and will tolerate no opinion but his own. An honest man, but one who dominates his family through fear.
Ma Fishyer is a ground-down, care-worn woman of perhaps forty-five years of age. She moves quickly and bustles around constantly, as though to hide her nervous fears. She is ever alert to protect her children from her husband’s harsh and relentless methods.
Emil is her childish son. Tall, gawky, docile and unobtrusive, he moves with a certain machine-like submission. Twenty-five may be his age.
Annie, about seventeen, is her mother’s greatest “worry,” a bit of human “driftwood.”
Mrs. Floyd is a sharp-tongued, meddlesome neighbor.
Miss Page, capable, sympathetic, and firmly believing that “to understand all, means to forgive all,” is an investigator for the Morals Court.