Characters
Alexander Ashbrook
You must be able to: understand how Gavin presents Alexander as a hero, the novel’s protagonist.
What is Alexander like as a teenager? Alexander is serious, introverted and devoted to music. Given the task of introducing Thomas to the choir school, he sympathetically tells him how to escape bullying. He calls Otis ‘insolent’, but warmly introduces the working-class Thomas as his ‘dearest friend’. As Lady Ashbrook points out, Thomas makes him more ‘human’ (Chapter 9). Alexander can be enthusiastic, as when he leads Thomas scrambling up a hill to view Ashbrook. He is concerned when Thomas falls off his horse. He is also affectionate towards his younger siblings. When forced to leave the choir school, he has enough sense of duty to try to obey his father, but then decides to abandon the family for a musical career. This shows courage and determination.
How is Alexander presented as an adult? We first see the adult Alexander as a 23-year-old who has spent five years struggling ‘in poverty’ abroad. Nonetheless he has stuck to his passion, and has been rewarded with the respect of Mr Burney and the composer Handel. By the beginning of Part 2 he largely lives by composing, but still occasionally works as a musical director, which is how he encounters Gaddarn. When Alexander meets Aaron, he feels emotional conflict because Aaron reminds him of himself at the same age, but is then kind and encouraging.
How does Alexander’s relationship with Melissa develop? Alexander gets to know Melissa in the holidays. He comments in Chapter 7, ‘Melissa seems quite amiable, don’t you think?’ The perceptive Thomas replies, ‘She’s very pretty, if that’s what you mean.’ Alexander’s understatement hides his feelings. In Chapter 9 they kiss, and in Chapter 12 Melissa – boldly or naively – visits Alexander in bed, apparently to suggest that he could play the virginals in Waterside. This leads to them making love before he leaves Ashbrook.
What role does Alexander play in the closing chapters? Alexander’s keen observation makes him think Gaddarn looks familiar. This is prompted by his sympathetic nature: overhearing Gaddarn talk about selling Toby into slavery makes him turn ‘in disgust’ and look ‘directly into Mr Gaddarn’s face’ (Chapter 21). Later he realises Gaddarn is Otis. When Gaddarn kidnaps Aaron, Alexander bravely confronts him, but has the presence of mind to offer to speak in his defence to lessen his sentence to ‘transportation rather than the gallows’ (Chapter 31) – being sent to the British colonies in America rather than being hanged. Finally, in Chapter 32, we see a sadder and wiser Alexander grieving for his friend, and feeling guilty about Melissa and their lost son.
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Characters
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