Character Analysis
Mince Meat
A few other citizens of Thisby make an impact on Puck and Sean's lives. The most important supporting character is Peg Gratton, the butcher's wife. She has quite a few scenes, none of which involve any literal butchering, although she does try to get Puck to quit the races a few times. Despite being a woman, she's not very encouraging toward the first woman to ever try to enter the race. She says she's worried about Puck's safety riding a real horse instead of a capaill, but she never gives Puck an alternative other than quitting. However, she comes around in the end, giving Puck Thisby's colors to wear in the race when the race administrators refuse to let Puck sign in.
There are a couple other Thisbians we hear of by name. Father Mooneyham, the priest, has to put up with Puck's long-winded confession of nothing. Puck acts like hating her brother is a mortal sin, when it's really just par for the course for anyone who has an older brother. He's not a very good priest though, because he actually tells Puck what her brother Gabe said in confession. Aren't those supposed to be private?
Then we have the brothers Brian and Jonathan Carroll. Puck can barely tell them apart, saying that one of them has a "lump of uncooked dough for a brain" (14.22), though we're not sure which. They're practically the same person, and neither of them makes much of an impact on Puck's life. One of them actually tries to kiss her, but she forgets about it so quickly that we can't remember which of one them did that either.