walk through Peckham’s New Cemetery with Merle (one of several foreshadowings of her premature death), Dougal poses like both an angel and angel-devil on a headstone. On the other hand, Dougal is shown as very vulnerable and human when rebuffed by his graduate school sweetheart, several times weeping at this loss, and when blackmailed by young Leslie Crewe. A further complexity involved in this portrayal of his vulnerability, however, is the possibility, by the way Dougal raises his head from the table during his first weeping, at the company canteen, that he is at least partly dramatizing his plight as a covert courting technique directed at the attractive factory women.

Dougal Douglas’ very name is repetitive, concurring with the novel’s pervasive repetition. Yet Dougal demonstrates a freedom within this restraint by manipulating his name into three forms (one of several threes in the book, another recurrent motif in Spark’s novels)—Dougal Douglas, Douglas Dougal, and Mr. Dougal-Douglas—to allow himself to hold three jobs simultaneously (as a ghost writer of an autobiography and as “arts man” in two competing textile firms) and to enjoy other such unconventional liberties. Not only his Scottishness (he frequently uses the word “wee”) and theatricality show in Dougal’s disposition to leap, caper, and dance in many situations, but also his vivacity. Moreover, Dougal, formerly an actor in university plays, preserves freedom and flexibility in real life by diverse transformations into at least fifteen additional roles in his dealings with Mr. Druce, Elaine Kent (one of his three girlfriends) and patrons of Findlater’s Ballroom, the Lomas gang, and the police. Indeed, in the novel’s brief three page concluding chapter and denouement, Dougal’s further career after fleeing from Peckham is described as tape-recorder salesman to African witch doctors (who may use the device to combat modern skepticism, Dougal claims, which recalls Nelly Mahone’s earlier symbolic mistaking of his name as “Mr. Doubtless”), Franciscan novice, and finally successful author of “a lot of cock-eyed books.”

Dougal Douglas

Dougal Douglas, a new employee of the English textile firm Meadows, Meade & Grindley. A twenty-three-year-old Scot with a deformed shoulder, a captivating smile, and a complete disregard for convention, Dougal is hired in the vaguely defined position of “Arts man” by virtue of his M.A. from the University of Edinburgh. Later, under another name, he takes a similar position with a rival firm. Because he is able to play any role that occurs to him, Dougal can adjust himself to almost all the characters he meets, and as a result, he elicits their secrets, draws them into his whimsical plans, and complicates their lives. Finally, he leaves for Africa, later appearing in a monastery and eventually choosing a career as a writer.

Humphrey Place

Humphrey Place, a refrigeration engineer who lives in the same rooming house as Dougal. Handsome but weak-willed, Humphrey is fascinated with Dougal and takes his opinions as gospel. Under Dougal’s influence, Humphrey rejects his fiancée, Dixie Morse, in mid-ceremony. Two months later, however, when Dougal is no longer present, he marries her.

Trevor Lomas

Trevor Lomas, an electrician and a gang leader. Tall, strong, and quarrelsome, he is jealous of Dougal, who has attracted Trevor’s girl. Convinced that Dougal is either the leader of a rival gang or a police agent, Trevor and his thugs threaten and attack Dougal’s friends. During his escape, Dougal is ambushed by Trevor but disarms and defeats him.

Dixie Morse

Dixie Morse, Humphrey’s fiancée, a typist at Meadows Meade. A tall, attractive, dark-eyed, black-haired woman of seventeen, Dixie ruins the engagement period by her insistence on making and saving every penny she can, so that she can have a perfect wedding and a fully furnished home. Devastated by Humphrey’s rejection, she nevertheless recovers enough to marry him later, when Dougal’s influence has dissipated.

Leslie Crewe

Leslie Crewe, Dixie’s half brother. Although only thirteen years old, he is a member of Trevor Lomas’ gang. When Dougal refuses to pay him blackmail to keep quiet about the two jobs, Leslie becomes his bitter enemy.

Merle Coverdale

Merle Coverdale, the head of the typing pool at Meadows Meade. At the age of thirty-seven, she has tired of her long-term relationship with her married employer but finds that she cannot extricate herself. Because of her friendship with Dougal, she is murdered by her lover.

Vincent R. Druce

Vincent R. Druce, the managing director of Meadows Meade. Trapped in his miserable marriage to a well-off wife, he has set up a permanent relationship with Merle Coverdale. After he hears rumors that Dougal is a police agent, he is so nervous about business misdeeds that he plans to flee the country. Before he can make his plans, however, he snaps mentally, accuses his mistress of informing on him, stabs her to death with a corkscrew, and is later arrested.

Maria Cheeseman

Maria Cheeseman, a retired actress and singer. Dougal, who is writing her autobiography, incorporates bits of the stories told to him by the residents of Peckham Rye, as if they were part of her experience.

Jinny Ferguson

Jinny Ferguson, Dougal’s girlfriend and fellow student at the University of Edinburgh. After he deserts her when she is ill, she breaks off their relationship and marries someone else. Dougal’s tears over Jinny’s rejection bring him the sympathy of his female fellow workers.

Richard Willis

Richard Willis, the managing director of a competing textile firm. A Scot, he sees Dougal as a possible ally, hires him for a vague research job, and makes plans to place him on the firm’s board of directors.

Dougal Douglas, also known by variations such as Douglas Dougal or Dougal-Douglas depending on which of his three employers you ask, drives the narrative in The Ballad of Peckham Rye. Without Dougal's arrival on the Rye, Humphrey Place might not have abandoned Dixie at the altar, Mr. Druce might not have resorted to attacking Miss Coverdale's neck with a corkscrew, Nelly Mahone might have stayed true to her original faith, and absenteeism at both of Peckham's textile companies might have remained unchanged. A ballad, particularly the border ballads that Spark, a native of Edinburgh, enjoys, often features a character larger than life. Spark typically crafts her protagonist as a curious blend of the extraordinary and the ordinary: Dougal might have traces of horns on his head, yet he sheds tears when his girlfriend leaves him. Similar to a Shakespearean tragic hero, Dougal possesses a "fatal flaw," which is merely a distaste for illness (ironically, this flaw spares him from marriage). Identifying Dougal is challenging because everyone perceives him differently, and he gives varied accounts of himself. Mrs. Willis considers Dougal like a son; Mr. Druce and Trevor Lomas suspect he's an undercover cop; Nelly views him as a devil; Humphrey regards him as an educated man. Dougal appears to be whatever the other characters desire him to be. At the novel's start, during his interview with Mr. Druce, Dougal morphs into "a monkey-puzzle tree," "a professor," "a television interviewer," and ultimately, "a visionary with a deformed shoulder"—precisely what Mr. Druce sought. Yet, Dougal never does anything against his will. Even for his employers, he only engages in tasks he finds personally entertaining.

Merle Coverdale, in contrast, feels trapped by her inability to act on her desires. Despite growing weary of her affair with the demanding and immature Mr. Druce, she doesn't end the relationship. Dougal advises her that she could simply "find another job ... and refuse to see him anymore. It's easy." She rejects the notion that she has the freedom to act differently, but in reality, she hesitates to leave Mr. Druce because it would mean relinquishing her position as head typist, a prospect she finds unbearable. Although she acknowledges having "a rotten life," her fear of becoming part of the ordinary working class keeps her entangled in a degrading and ultimately tragic relationship.

Dixie Morse's family, consisting of her mother Mavis Crewe, her stepfather Arthur Crewe, and her brother Leslie, all recognize that Miss Coverdale's involvement with Mr. Druce is inappropriate. Mavis even refers to Merle as "a disappointed spinster" who resents Dixie's engagement. Despite their differences, Mavis and Merle share certain similarities. Mavis ended her first marriage because "everything sorta wenna pieces. We were living a lie ... and it was becoming sorta immoral to live together, not loving each other." This sentiment mirrors Merle's opinion on Mr. Druce's marriage, albeit expressed in less polished English. However, Dixie's family isn't necessarily more virtuous than Miss Coverdale. Mavis, boasting about being "the first G.I. bride to have departed from Peckham and returned," looks down on "the factory lot" much like Miss Coverdale looks down on her typists. Additionally, Mavis is raising Leslie, who borders on delinquency, and Dixie, who is quite snobbish—she humorously corrects Mavis's English but refrains from correcting Dougal Douglas, even when he deliberately makes more glaring mistakes. Dixie believes it's wrong to live a lie as Miss Coverdale does, yet she has no qualms about bribing Leslie so she can secretly meet Humphrey Place at night.

Humphrey Place is introduced to Dougal by their landlady, Miss Belle Frierne, as "clean and go-ahead." This assessment is mostly accurate, except for the fact that he leaves his fiancée at the altar. Unbeknownst to Miss Frierne, he discreetly takes Dixie to his room at night (carrying her up the stairs to avoid noise) for intimate encounters in his cupboard. Even after being accidentally stabbed in the face by the brawny but foolish Trevor Lomas (who intended to attack Dougal with a broken pint glass), Humphrey remains good-natured about the incident as well as his affection for Dixie. Though he frequently espouses union rhetoric, Spark portrays him as an appealing character. He nearly leaves Peckham but ultimately, much like Mavis Crewe, he returns to marry Dixie and settle in her model bungalow.

Mr. Druce remains with Mrs. Druce for the same reason Miss Coverdale stays with him: she has wealth. Druce is central to much of the novel's irony. Despite running the company, he behaves childishly on Saturdays by riding elevators and even pinches and bites Merle Coverdale. He mistakenly thinks Merle and Dougal are involved romantically and possibly conspiring against him. Yet, instead of confronting Dougal or firing him, Druce gives him a pay raise and employs Trevor Lomas to spy on them and intimidate Merle. When this strategy fails, Druce considers killing her—an idea he has been mulling over for a while, as evidenced by his habit of playing with sharp objects in her presence. In a final twist of irony, when Mr. Druce stabs Miss Coverdale, he raises "his voice above the roar of the television," echoing class distinctions. This mirrors an earlier argument among the lower-class Crewe family, where Mavis Crewe drowns out the noise by turning the radio "to a roar" and then yelling over it.