Characters

Anna is the protagonist of the novel. She has a poor relationship with her shameful father and married Sam Frith at age 15. Anna also had two sons with Sam, Jamie and Tom. Anna tends to the plague infected and also becomes Eyam’s midwife as the true midwife passed away due to the plague. The plague made Anna much stronger as it took her sons and many of her close friends away from her. The plague allowed Anna to surpass her expectations of herself as before it she never would have been so strong and believed in herself that much to deliver a child.
 * Anna Frith **

Elinor initially seems to be a gentle soul who enjoys gardening and married beneath her but the strain of the plague shows that she is a strong and determined woman, this is demonstrated when she insists to go mining with Anna Frith. Elinor also married very young and was left young, alone and depressed when her husband abandoned her. This mentally scarred Elinor and was present when she was suffering from delusions and screamed for the boy.
 * Elinor Mompellion **

Mompellion was Eyam’s rector and brought faith and hope to the town. He was seen as the humble and religious man who was extremely wise and lucky. The rector employed Anna and as the plague started convinced the village to stay in self imposed quarantine. Alter on in the novel, the plague uncovers the rectors true and darker self.
 * Michael Mompellion **

George was a tailor who travelled from London and lodged with Anna Frith. He was the one whom brought the plague to the village, unintentionally. George died of the plague.
 * George Viccars **

A family in the village whom fled when the village announced to quarantine themselves. The Bradford’s put their needs in front of the rest of the world by committing this extremely selfish act.
 * The Bradford Family **

Anna Frith’s ‘shameful’ father, Josiah was a dishonest and brutal man who did not care for those around him and what they thought of him. He was married to Anna;s mother until she unfortunately passed away whilst giving birth. He then Married Aphra and has other children. The plague brought another profession for Josiah and therefore another way in which to take advantage of his peers. He began to charge ridiculous amounts to bury the dead as the grave digger also passed away due to the plague.
 * Josiah Bont **

Aphra is the wife of Josiah Bont and is therefore Anna’s step mother. The plague changes Aphra as she dishonestly sells charms to protect people of the plague at extortion prices. She also loses all of her children to the plague which cause her to be engulfed in grief which leads to utter madness Aphra goes on the murder Elinor and then commit suicide.
 * Aphra Bont **

Anys was an honest and caring young lady who always wished to help people. She stayed with her auntie Mem Gowdie and tended their garden searching for new rememedies. Her, with her auntie was the village healer. When the plague struck Anys attempted to search for a remedy but her time was cut short as the villagers hang her as they believed that she had connections with the devil and brought this plague upon them.
 * Anys Gowdie **

The auntie of Anys and was also a healer. The villagers initially came after her as they believed she had connections to the devil. They threw her into a flooded mine shaft. Anys rescued her but she died of pneumonia 5 days later.
 * Mem Gowdie **

__**NEW ONE!**__ __ Anna Frith- __ The Narrator, a housemaid with two children and widowed. Grew up with an abusive father. She is strong and independent, with many freethinking ideas, but is held down by the conventions of her society. Throughout the novel the reader sees every experience through her eyes, she is the key protagonist as a healer. Through the horrors of the plague, she learns to deal with death and loss, she becomes a strong, free woman who can stand up for what she believe in, and consequentially is able to accomplish incredible things she never thought she could. __ Elinor Mompellion- __ The kind, gentle wife of Mr. Mompellion. She is skilled in herbs and is a town healer. She grew up a rich, spoilt girl and eloped too young. This resulted in her abandonment, and tragically the mutilation of her own pregnancy. She was able to overcome her torment through meeting Mr. Mompellion. Although Elinor is not the most progressive character, she learns that she has many people around her who truly love her, and she learns to open up to others, by telling Anna her dark past. __ Michael Mompellion- __ The town rector, a kindly and self-sacrificing man. He is a man of God; so much to an extent it became one of his faults, such as his justification in his treatment of Elinor. He devises the quarantine plan of the village and grows to be a very strong and inspiring leader. Unfortunately, by the end of the plague, he is changed for the worst and ultimately looses his faith in God. However, this is more through the murder of his wife as opposed to the experience of the plague. __ George Viccars- __ He is a gentle and caring man, full of personality and worldly tales. He comes to stay in the town boarding with Anna, and makes his popularity and money as a talented tailor. Although he bodes well with children and treats Anna extremely well, even with hopes to marry her, he is also risky, sleeping with Ayns Gowdie for fun. It is the dress he orders for Anna, which carried the plague to the town, he is the first victim. __ The Bradford Family- __ They are rich, powerful and proud people who lord over the town. However, they are also extremely snobbish and cowardly, abandoning the town at word of the plague. All have the distinguishing characteristic to look down on the members of the township and naturally mistreat them. __ Josiah Bont- __ He is the father of Anna, but not a good one. He physically abused her for her entire childhood, so badly that when Anna’s deceased husband found out, he sought out Bont and bashed him. He is an extremely selfish, rude and cruel man who takes advantage of the people when the plague comes around. Given his faults, nothing is black and white. In his commonly drunk state, he will often talk about the terrible and traumatising life he has lead. He dies being stabbed into a rock, where he waits in the cold and none come to retrieve him. __ Aphra Bont- __ She is a harsh woman who is simply trying to survive. Although she is not necessarily kind, initially she is not completely terrible either. However, like her husband she comes to take advantage of the traumatised plague town and fools them out of their money with fake magic tricks. She quickly looses her mind when her husband and all her children die almost all at once. She stabs and consequentially kills Elinor in her insanity. __ Anys Gowdie- __ She is a young and very beautiful woman who works with herbs and medicine in the town. She is also an excellent midwife. Anys is everything Anna wishes she were at the beginning of the novel. She is completely unorthodox, ignoring the traditions, expectations and conventions of a woman’s role. She freely has unmarried sex, openly discusses this topic, speaks her mind on everything to anyone and lives a completely independent lifestyle. Along with high intelligence, she is also very brash with a tendency to be rude. She is killed when the town accuses her of being a witch. As her final revenge she admits this, but before dying says the entire woman in the town are witches too, as if to be creating one last moment of havoc before the town destroys her. __ Mem Gowdie- __ She is the mother of Anys, was accused of being a witch in her unconventional ways. It is clear Anys inherited all her intelligence and unconventional thoughts from her mother, although Mem is much older and seems to be much more bitter. Although she is not seen much the novel, she appears to be very wise and full of experience. She meets her death when the village begins to panic about the plague, accusing her again of being a witch, this time blaming her for all the deaths. Although her daughter saves her from drowning, the damage is irreversible and she dies soon after.
 * __ Year of Wonders- Characters   __**

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