Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

Merton Densher

It's hard to name a central protagonist in this novel, since James takes care to focus on the perspectives of different characters in different sections of the story. The reason Merton Densher stands out as the protagonist, though, is because he is ultimately the one who faces a difficult moral decision at the end of the book. On top of that, the majority of the book's final 200 pages are rooted totally in his perspective.

Now, whether or not we like Merton is a different story. After all, he can't bring himself to make a dying girl happy because it involves lying. He's no hero, but he's the closest thing we have to a protagonist in the traditional sense.