Character Analysis
Abby Gokey
Abby is two years younger than Mattie, and a much needed calming presence in the Gokey household; Mattie thinks that of the four girls, Abby is the most like their mother. And of all the sisters, Mattie is the closest to her—she wants desperately to tell Abby about her acceptance to Barnard College, but she's worried her blabbermouth sisters will overhear. She tells us: "I wanted to tell Abby powerfully bad" (16.recouriumphoration.126). Aw…
When Mattie goes to work at the Glenmore, Abby takes over her responsibilities around the house: cooking, cleaning, and farm work. And when the whole family takes ill, it's Abby who tries to care for them until Mattie comes to take over. Abby's the one who knows what to do for the sickness, not Mattie, and she tries to tell her big sis what will be best for the family before she collapses in bed. So when Mattie decides to leave home, it's no wonder that she thinks of her sister with a little heartache.
Ada Bouchard
Ada works at the Glenmore with Mattie. While Mattie is friends with her, she also recognizes that Ada is "a nervous little hen, always worrying when there's no cause" (1.12). Ada's also a pretty nosey person; she checked the registry and saw that Carl Grahm and Grace Brown had two different last names.
Perhaps most importantly, Ada tells Mattie that if she doesn't keep a promise made to a dead person, the person will come back to haunt her. This notion, ironically, haunts Mattie throughout the novel more than the ghosts of Mattie's past do.
Ada's kind of a one-sided character through the novel, and though she's Mattie's friend, she doesn't change. She remains flighty and boy-crazy throughout.
Arn Satterlee
Arn is the local tax assessor. He's the person who collects the taxes, or, in the case of Emmie Hubbard, lets the taxes slide because he feels sorry for her and her family situation.
Unfortunately, someone (we're looking at you, Royal Loomis and your mama) lets Arn's boss know that Arn is lax on Emmie Hubbard, so he has to write Emmie a couple of letters: one that tells her that she needs to pay her taxes ($12.70) or she'll be evicted, and a second one that sets the date of her house's auction. Arn is really a side-character used to advance the Hubbard-Loomis plot line.
Aunt Josephine
Aunt Josie is Mattie's mother's sister. She's a large woman who married a wealthy man, and the only things that she cares about are her porcelain figurines that Mattie dusts every Wednesday (without pay, because Josie is notoriously stingy—so maybe she cares about money too). Aunt Josie never thought Pa was good enough for her sister (a.k.a. Mattie's mom), and she thinks her sister should have married someone else, probably someone wealthier and more hoity-toity. Oh, and Aunt Josie gossips about everything. She even opens a letter intended for Emmie Hubbard.
When Mattie tries to get the money for Barnard from Aunt Josie, all she gets is a giant lecture for her trouble (again, maybe Aunt Josie cares about money in addition to her figurines). In the lecture, Aunt Josie calls Mattie selfish, thoughtless, and full of pride. In other words, she gives Mattie an earful, and not so much as a cent.
Although Aunt Josie is pretty despicable, she shows a softer, more compassionate side after she steams open a letter meant for Emmie Hubbard (hello, felonious action), realizes the widow and her children will soon be homeless, and responds with some sympathetic feeling. This show of genuine emotion doesn't inspire her to part with any of her valuable moolah, though, of course.
Aunt Josie is the unofficial spokesperson for a few abstract ideas in the novel: the self-righteousness of the middle to upper class of the region, the embodiment of traditional values of womanhood, and the hypocrisy that exists in both of these concepts.
Belinda Becker
Blond and pretty, Belinda is engaged to Dan Loomis, Royal's older brother, who will inherit the Loomis farm. She's got a nice dowry, and people say that the pair are well-matched. She's giggly, flighty, and not very intelligent—in fact, she doesn't really seem like she can stand on her own without Dan's support. And when Martha Miller confronts Mattie about Royal's intentions (sheesh, it's just regular high school drama), Belinda tries to head off the conversation, either because she cares for her friend or because she's uncomfortable.
Beth Gokey
The youngest of the Gokey girls, Beth is only five years old. She loves music and sings constantly, so much so that Uncle Fifty gives her a harmonica as a gift.
Beth seems to represent the innocence of childhood. She reacts so genuinely to the situations that arise at the Gokey house—she's afraid of the monster in the manure pile that turns out to be Uncle Fifty, for instance—and when Mattie sees the true relationship between Emmie Hubbard and Frank Loomis through the window, she yanks Beth away to protect her from the knowledge. Beth's innocence serves as a contrast to Mattie's much more complex world view, even though Mattie is only sixteen years old herself.
Charlie Eckler
Charlie owns the pickle boat, which is a floating grocery store and library that tours the lakes, serving the communities on their shores. He saves Mattie new books when he can in his lending library, and also sells dry goods, fruits and vegetables, meats and dairy, and a few other necessities, like hardware and sewing supplies.
As the spring arrives, Charlie begins an arrangement with Pa Gokey, trading bacon for milk. He has similar arrangements with other farmers in the area, sometimes trading goods for supplies, sometimes trading for money.
Charlie's character is actually based on a real person. There really was a pickle boat and it really was a grocery store. For more information, check out this website.
Cook a.k.a. Mrs. Hennessey
A domineering force at the Glenmore, Cook runs the kitchen and manages the girls who work the dining room. She tolerates little time wasting and rules her roost efficiently. She is the adult that the girls working at the Glenmore answer to the most and, as such, insists on the highest levels of honesty and service from the girls.
Although Cook seems heartless at first, she exhibits signs of softness when Grace Brown dies and when Weaver gets attacked by the white men, so we know she isn't the drill sergeant that she seems to be.
Dan Loomis
Dan is Royal's older brother, and engaged to Belinda Becker; eventually he'll inherit the Loomis farm, and he's been groomed for the role ever since he was born. Dan's a virtually invisible character in the novel, and because he's set to inherit the Loomis farm, his presence is felt mostly in Royal's ambition.
Emma (Emmie) Hubbard
Emmie Hubbard becomes a major thread of the story, bigger than one might think at the beginning. She's a widow with seven kids (the youngest of which is just a baby), and her home and land lie between the Gokey and Loomis farms.
Emmie doesn't seem to know how to take care of her kids; she doesn't clean her house or feed them, and sometimes she hides under the bed. She tries to make enough money to keep her house by painting and cleaning rooms, but she never manages to earn enough, so her kids are always hungry, and they usually look for free handouts from the Gokeys and other neighbors.
It's only in the middle of the story that we find out about the sexual nature of Frank Loomis and Emmie Hubbard's relationship. We never know if it's mutual or if there's some sort of exchange between the two of them, but the relationship (if it can even be called that) causes all sorts of trouble.
Royal mentions that his Pa takes food over to the Hubbards, so it's possible that Emmie is trading her body to keep her children fed. But then again, there also might be some real emotion from one or both parties. We never really know. The only thing we do know is that Frank Loomis likely fathered the three youngest Hubbard children.
Emmie and Frank's relationship is juicy gossip for the region. It's indicative of the role of women at the time that blame mostly rests on Emmie's shoulders, and not Frank. Because of the relationship between Emmie and his dad, Royal hates Emmie and her children, to the point that he and his mother conspire to evict the family from their home.
But new life springs for Emmie at the end of the novel when Weaver's mamma moves in with the Hubbards. This arrangement is as happy an ending as the story has as Emmie appears to be more "with it" as she takes over Weaver's mamma's business of selling food at the train station, and her children seem to thrive (grudgingly) under Weaver's mamma's watchful eye. Mattie uses some of the money she's earned over the summer to pay Emmie Hubbard's taxes, too, so eviction is staved off… at least for now.
Frances (Fran, Frannie) Hill
Fran is one of Mattie's friends who she works with at the Glenmore; she's small with red hair, but her personality is large, bold, and audacious. As the head waitress at the hotel, Fran takes Mattie under her wing when Mattie first starts at the Glenmore. She's a pretty good actress; she lies smoothly and easily, though the quicker adults aren't fooled by her wide eyes and innocent stare (4.46-51).
When Martha Miller confronts Mattie at the Fourth of July celebration, it's Fran who stands up for Mattie when no one else knows what to say. She also is the girl who plans how to get back at table six for his lewd propositions and behavior. Go, Fran, go.
Frank Loomis
Because we only see Frank Loomis through Mattie's eyes, it takes a while for his character to be revealed through the course of the novel. Toward the beginning, he's just one of Mattie's neighbors, albeit a neighbor whose son Mattie has a huge crush on. He owns a large amount of land—about ninety acres, forty of them cleared for farming—on the other side of the Hubbard land, close enough to the Gokeys to be called their neighbors. Married to Ida Loomis, Frank has four sons: Dan, Royal, Jim, and Will; Dan will eventually inherit the Loomis Farm.
Throughout the novel, we get clues that Frank is having an affair with Emmie Hubbard before the big awkward reveal to Mattie. When Emmie Hubbard is caught not paying her taxes and her land is going to be auctioned off, Aunt Josie and her friend gossip that Frank wouldn't want her gone anyway. Plus Frank brings Emmie eggs fairly regularly.
Mattie is pretty oblivious to the whole thing, but when she catches Frank and Emmie in the act through the window of the Hubbard farm, her new knowledge changes her view of both Frank and Emmie. So Frank serves as a way to upend Mattie's belief in what things seem to be: She used to believe Frank was good, but now she can only see him as the cause of Emmie's three youngest children's blond hair. And if her view about him can change so drastically, what does this mean about the world she lives in?
When Mattie fights with Royal on the Fourth of July, she realizes that he—and everyone else in their small community—is aware of his father's indiscretions. It's pretty clear that Frank Loomis's behavior deeply affects all his sons' actions toward their neighbors; Royal even comments that he hopes when Emmie Hubbard and her children leave, they go to hell (40.ideal.25). Nice, Royal, really nice. His anger is misplaced, of course; it's his father who's wronged him, not Emmie.
It's important that some characters (Royal and his mother) blame Emmie Hubbard, and some characters (Mattie and, surprisingly, Aunt Josie) blame Frank Loomis. The placement of blame is important because it serves as commentary about the role of men and women in society.
Hamlet
Hamlet is a Great Dane who belongs to Mr. Palmer, a guest of the Glenmore. Mattie feeds him and walks him every day to earn some extra money. Hamlet's "constitutional" habits play an integral role in the trick Mattie and her friends play to get back at table six.
Henry (Heinrich)
Henry is the German underchef who starts working at the Glenmore the same week that Mattie does. But when he leaves unopened cans of milk on the stove and they explode, it comes out that he never trained as a chef, so he is demoted to menial labor.
Jim Compeau
Jim is Minnie's husband, and he clearly loves her beyond reason. When she presents him with the twins she birthed, he almost can't believe it. And, in fact, he has a hard time respecting her wishes that she not get pregnant again right away. C'mon Jim, let a woman recover.
John Denio
John drives some of the horses and carriages for the Glenmore. He seems to help the people who get in trouble in the novel, saving Weaver from fairly certain death when Weaver is attacked, and taking Mattie to her family when they're sick. He's a character that fades into the background, usually only appearing to further a plot point or two.
Lawton Gokey
Although Lawton never appears in the flesh in the story, Mattie's memories of him give us all the information we need to know. Here's the rough timeline of Lawton's story: He's the eldest of the Gokey children, and he was supposed to stay and take over the farm from Pa. But after Mamma dies, right after Christmas, Lawton and Pa get into a fierce argument, and Lawton runs away to become a riverman.
Throughout the course of the novel, we gradually learn more about Lawton. He used to plow the fields, but now it's Mattie's job; he used to protect the Hubbard boys from the Loomis boys; he loved to fish when he was home, and the river with its rushing water and unknown bends. He once bought Mattie a composition book and pencil with money he'd saved after their father refused to.
It's only when Pa becomes sick and Mattie cares for him that she realizes Lawton left because he believes that Pa killed Mamma with hard work. Mattie's heart is so full of sorrow at this, because she knows that her Pa believes Lawton's words, even if Lawton said them only in the heat of anger. The reality is that the cancer, not working the farm, killed Mamma.
Lawton's absence colors a lot of the novel. Because he's not there, the Gokeys' lives are harder and Royal sees an opening to accomplish two purposes with one action. Because Lawton's gone, the farm is less productive, and because Lawton accused Pa of having a hand in his wife's death, Pa vacillates between anger and guilt constantly. Mattie also has a much harder time leaving her family because her brother bounced, leaving havoc in his wake.
Lou Gokey
One of Mattie's sisters, Lou is only eleven. She takes after Pa, with black hair and blue eyes, and she becomes very angry after Mamma dies and Lawton leaves. It's implied that she idolizes Lawton: she wears his old clothes and enjoys fishing and outdoor activities more than going to school. She tends to swear and speaks in the vernacular of the region, which Mattie endlessly tries to correct.
Although Lou is kind, she often goes about being kind in roundabout ways; that is, she may insult Mattie's cooking and offer it to a hungry neighbor all in one breath. And she tells Mattie that she hides the genius inside her really well (17.furtive.25). When Miss Wilcox offers to hire Mattie to organize her library, Lou offers to do Mattie's chores so that she can, which means Lou clearly has a streak of kindness. She is particularly sad when their neighbors have to put Daisy, their cow, down, and takes it upon herself to nurse Daisy's little calf as much as she can.
When Mattie and Lou visit Miss Wilcox for lunch, Mattie realizes that Lou is looking for attention because their father doesn't even see his children anymore (22.glean.41). But when Mattie talks passionately about what writing should be like at that same lunch, Lou is acutely aware that Mattie's thoughts are not in line with social mores and tells Mattie that she shouldn't talk about this stuff (22.glean.80). It seems that Lou has a pretty good sense of what rules she can bend in her society and community without breaking them.
Mamma (Ellen Gokey)
Is it possible for a dead character in a novel to be multi-faceted? After reading A Northern Light, we think so. Although Mamma died from cancer before Christmas, she permeates the entirety of the novel. Because of her death, Mattie has to take over household duties, and because of a promise Mattie made to her while she was dying to look after her sisters, Mattie has a hard time pursuing her dreams. On the flipside, though, Mattie has Mamma to thank for instilling a love of books in her, and also introducing her to the value of education.
In other words, Shmoopsters, she might be dead, but Mamma is definitely pulling some strings in this novel from beyond the grave.
But let's start at the beginning. Here's a quick recap: Ellen Robertson grew up wealthy with her sister until she fell in love with Michael Gokey. When she ran away with him, her father disowned her for marrying Pa, and her sister never forgave her for giving up what she was born to. Go team.
Despite their struggles, Pa and Mamma seemed happy, although Mamma had several miscarriages. After Pa had a few extremely close calls on the river, Ellen decided that she couldn't live with the danger anymore, especially because there were four children to think of. They argued, and even though Pa apologized, Ellen took the kids to stay with her sister for three weeks. When Pa came to talk, Ellen gave him her jewelry, and he used it to buy some land so that they could make a life farming together.
Mamma seemed happy on the farm. She took care of the house and of her girls (2.fractious.12), cleaning and cooking and encouraging Mattie's intellectual bent. She seems to have been a patient and loving woman, and Mattie intersperses the novel with anecdotes that flesh out Mamma's character, including her saying that Mattie would get her high school diploma "even though Pa wanted me to leave school" (6.somniferous.5). Mattie misses her with all her heart, and we see that her sisters and father do as well throughout the novel.
Without Mamma, life is incredibly hard on the farm. We see it through Mattie's new responsibilities and through the turmoil that Pa goes through, trying to keep his family together after Mamma has died. It doesn't help when we find out that Pa believes that he killed his wife through the hard labor the farm requires. Mattie knows that it's the cancer that killed her mother, not the work, but this doesn't alleviate Pa's guilt.
When Mattie visits Mamma's grave, she remembers her reading and singing and cooking, but she also remembers the difficult times, especially how Mamma wasted away from the cancer, her body ravaged with pain, and how she made Mattie promise to "stay and take care of her babies" (23.dehiscence.21). This is the promise Mattie has so much trouble breaking, the promise that Weaver thinks Mattie's mother had no right to ask Mattie to make.
Eventually, Mattie decides to leave Eagle Bay, despite all that is pulling her to stay. We wonder whether she's really breaking a promise to Mamma, or if she's following the path her mother would have wanted to. We're thinking it's the latter.
Martha Miller
The daughter of a minister in Inlet, Martha, who is pretty and dainty and flighty, dated Royal for a while until he broke it off with her. Aunt Josie thinks it's because the Millers don't pay their bills, but it could be because Royal has designs to get his own farm land through marrying Mattie.
At the Fourth of July celebration, Martha has a fight with Royal and then confronts Mattie with some pretty awful truths. It's Martha who tells Mattie that Royal is only marrying her to get the land from Mattie's father, that Royal's mother has been saving up to buy him some land, and that Royal's mother told Arn's boss that Emmie Hubbard is behind on her taxes. Though her words are true (we've been handed clues about this throughout the novel), it doesn't stop them from being hurtful as well.
Minnie Compeau
Minnie is one of Mattie's best friends and married to Jim Compeau. When we first meet her, she's in her third trimester of a difficult pregnancy. Mattie and Minnie grew up together, but as life has taken them in different directions, Mattie realizes that her relationship with Minnie has irrevocably changed.
The birth of Minnie's twins is very difficult. Mattie fortuitously comes to visit Minnie on the day of the birth, and she helps Mrs. Crego, the midwife, through the delivery. The birth is messy and complicated, bloody and full of emotion. Minnie doesn't think she'll make it, and Mrs. Crego has to reach in and turn one of the twins, which is agony for Minnie. But then the babies are born, and Minnie falls asleep, only to awaken when Jim comes home; it's clear from the looks he and Minnie give each other that they love one another deeply.
Minnie sinks into some serious post-partum depression after the birth of the twins. When Mattie visits her, the kitchen and rest of the house are filthy, the babies are dirty, and Minnie herself is like an emotional time bomb—and when she goes off, she tells Mattie that she hates her children sometimes and that she wishes she'd never gotten married.
It seems like Minnie works as a symbol for one of the future paths Mattie could take: that of the dutiful housewife, filled with conversations about cooking and cleaning, motherhood and children. And it becomes pretty clear Mattie wants something different than the path Minnie has chosen.
Mr. and Mrs. Morrison
The Morrisons manage the Glenmore (which is different from owning it), and they work their employees hard, but also look out for their best interests. When Weaver's mom's house burns down, Mr. Morrison says he'll find work for Weaver, and Grace Brown's death hits Mrs. Morrison pretty hard. Mr. Morrison looks for Carl/Chester's body the night of Grace's death, but he doesn't find anything. And when he asks the chief of police in Albany about a man named Carl Grahm, he's told there's no one in the city who has that name (19.30-34).
Miss Parrish
Mattie's former school teacher, Miss Parrish was replaced by Miss Wilcox. Miss Parrish is the teacher who told Mattie that people want to read happy, inspiring stories, not morbid ones; Miss Parrish makes Mattie feel ashamed of her writing. Shame on Miss Parrish.
Mr. Sperry
Mr. Dwight Sperry owns the Glenmore Hotel. He runs it well, but he also demonstrates concern for his employees; he searches for Carl Grahm/Chester Gillette for half the night when Grace Brown's body is first found. Even though Mr. Sperry confines Weaver to the kitchens after he's beaten by three white men, he does it for a couple reasons: he doesn't want Weaver's healing face scaring the guests, and he wants to protect Weaver from other violent encounters.
Mr. Sperry also has a streak of kindness like Cook does. When Mattie bursts into tears because Miss Wilcox is leaving, Mr. Sperry allows her to visit her friend before the supper rush begins. He even lets Emmie Hubbard into the Fourth of July Glenmore celebration for free, though he doesn't advertise this to anyone.
Table Six (Mr. Maxwell)
Table six, whose real name is Mr. Maxwell, is a guest at the Glenmore who exposes himself to the waitresses and tries to find opportunities to accost them and proposition them sexually. Yet the girls don't want to report his sexually explicit behavior because one of them is worried that if they tell, her father will blame her and not table six. And although the girls get back at table six by causing him to trip into a pile of dog poop—and threatening to report him to the authorities—it's what table six represents that's most disturbing.
Table six symbolizes everything that's wrong with men: he's a sexual predator who thinks he can get away with his behavior because of his power as a man in the early twentieth century. He preys on the innocent (the girls), and depends on them backing down instead of acting. Which is why it's so wonderful when the girls take control of the situation—not only are they standing up for themselves, they're realizing the power that they have. Revenge on table six gives Mattie a taste of what agency and power she might have outside of the Eagle Bay community.
Tommy Hubbard
The oldest of Emmie Hubbard's children at twelve years old, Tommy is the one who is most responsible. He worries for his mom, and he knows the real relationship between his mother and Frank Loomis. He seems to be a peripheral character, though we see very clearly how the relationship between his mom and Frank Loomis affects him emotionally and psychologically. We only catch glimpses of how Tommy is affected by the situation, and we have to wonder how much of his story we don't know.
Uncle Fifty (Francis Pierre Gokey)
Uncle Fifty, like Pa, was born in Canada. In fact, Uncle Fifty still lives there when he's not making his living logging on the river (which is what Pa used to do before his wife made him quit). He speaks with a pretty strong French accent, and he appears one spring day at the Gokey farm, drunk off his butt and sleeping in a manure pile.
Uncle Fifty is generous to a fault and flaky beyond belief. When he arrives at the farm, he cooks a feast, gives fabulous gifts (Mattie gets a real pen), and tells the tallest of tales. After the girls go to bed, Uncle Fifty accuses Pa of turning into a ghost after his wife died. Pa disputes this, but we think Uncle Fifty's right on the money, even though it might be the whiskey talking. It's definitely the whiskey talking when Uncle Fifty offers to give Mattie the money to go to college; he disappears up the river before he can make good on that promise.
Uncle Fifty's purpose in the novel is two-fold: he's meant to serve as his brother's conscience, the truth that his brother won't or can't admit to himself, and his disappearance is meant to make life more complex for Mattie as she realizes that everyone she thought she could depend on has left—everyone except Pa, that is, who doesn't want her to leave. So how can she abandon him? Thanks a lot, Uncle Fifty. Mattie was like thisclose to going to college.
Weaver's Mamma (Aleeta Smith)
Weaver's mother is really named Aleeta Smith, but everyone calls her "Weaver's mamma." She and her son moved to the North Woods from the South after her husband was killed right in front of them because he didn't move off the sidewalk as they passed (3.abecedarian.51). She lives just south of Emmie Hubbard.
To make money, Weaver's mother washes clothes, sheets, and table linens for hotels and camps, raises chickens, and cooks food to sell at the Eagle Bay train station. She saves everything she earns in a box under her bed, and this money is going to be used to send Weaver to Columbia University in New York City.
When Weaver gets into a scuffle with an ignorant train passenger, Aleeta fears for his safety, most likely as a result of her personal experience with racism. But Weaver is not the type of person to sit back and permit racist behavior against his person; because of this indomitable spirit, his mother is both proud of him and afraid for him.
In an unhappy turn of events, though, Weaver's mamma is the one who is injured because of Weaver's pride. In retaliation for jail time, the men who beat up Weaver attack Weaver's mamma and his home. They kill Weaver's mamma's mule and chickens, steal Weaver's college money, break Weaver's mamma's arm, and burn down their house. So much for justice. The best we get is a not unhappy ending as Weaver's mamma adjusts to life with Emmie Hubbard.