Three women, one gray town, and nobody gets out whole.
Who drives the story
A German servant who rules Miss Mathilda's Bridgepoint household with scolding and strict economy. She gives everything to her friend Mrs. Lehntman until the friendship cools, then works herself to death through a painful illness she refuses to acknowledge.
A young mixed-race woman with a cruel father and a hunger for 'wisdom' and real feeling. Her troubled courtship with Dr. Jeff Campbell collapses under his suspicion, and she dies of consumption, abandoned and unmourned.
An earnest, educated black doctor who believes in duty and regular living. He loves Melanctha's wildness and fears it at once, and his jealousy finally drives her away.
Anna's adored friend, a widow running a shop and a lying-in hospital for poor pregnant women. Careless with money, warm with people, she breaks Anna's heart by taking a younger friend.
A careless, selfish, lazy black woman married to steady Sam. Melanctha helps her through her baby's death, and Rose repays her by calling her a bad one and abandoning her.
Also in the story
A gentle, dreamy German immigrant with no power to be active within her. Married off to Herman Kreder, she is ground down by drudgery and childbearing and dies with her fourth baby, never having complained.
The tailor's gentle but weak son, as passive as his bride. He runs from the wedding, is forced back, and never once defends Lena from his mother.
Anna's easy-going employer, bullied into frugality and devoted to her anyway. She is away in Europe when Anna dies and returns to find her dead.
How they are connected
A German servant who rules Miss Mathilda's Bridgepoint household with scolding and strict economy.
Lehntman until the friendship cools, then works herself to death through a painful illness she refuses to acknowledge.
Melanctha HerbertJeff Campbell
Jeff Campbell collapses under his suspicion, and she dies of consumption, abandoned and unmourned.
Melanctha helps her through her baby's death, and Rose repays her by calling her a bad one and abandoning her.
Married off to Herman Kreder, she is ground down by drudgery and childbearing and dies with her fourth baby, never having complained.
Go deeper
Duty as a slow death · The hunger for real feeling · Repetition as a way of thinking · Women abandoned by everyone
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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