Miss Lonelyhearts

Miss Lonelyhearts, the male writer of advice to the lovelorn on the New York Post-Dispatch. The lovelorn column, considered a necessity for the increase in the paper’s circulation and regarded by its staff as a joke, becomes an agony to its writer as he sees that the letters he receives are genuine cries for help from the very depths of suffering. In an attempt to escape the pain of the realization that he is the victim of the joke rather than its perpetrator, he turns in vain to drink, to lovemaking, and to a vacation in the country with a woman who loves him. Finally, in the delirium of illness, he imagines himself identified with the Christ whose image has long haunted him. As the handicapped Peter Doyle approaches his room, Miss Lonelyhearts runs toward him with arms outstretched to receive him in his healing embrace. His gesture is mistaken for an intended attack, and he is shot.

Willie Shrike

Willie Shrike, the feature editor, who is Miss Lonelyhearts’ boss. He turns the knife in Miss Lonelyhearts’ agony by his unending mockery of the desperate cries for help in the lovelorn letters and of the attempts at escape with which people delude themselves.

Mary Shrike

Mary Shrike, Willie Shrike’s wife, whom Miss Lonelyhearts tries in vain to seduce.

Betty

Betty, a girl who is in love with Miss Lonelyhearts. Hoping to cure his despair, she takes him to the country. The attempt fails, since the letters are not forgotten.

Peter Doyle

Peter Doyle, a handicapped man who consults Miss Lonelyhearts about the meaning of the painful and unremunerative round of his existence. Later, he accuses the columnist of the attempted rape of his wife and shoots him in a struggle following a gesture that Doyle mistakes for an intended attack.

Fay Doyle

Fay Doyle, Peter Doyle’s wife. Dissatisfied with her life with her handicapped husband, she seeks out Miss Lonelyhearts and tries to seduce him.

West once described Miss Lonelyhearts as akin to a comic strip, where each chapter bursts with a lively tableau of simultaneous happenings. The characters leap off the page with the bold simplicity and clarity reminiscent of a cartoonist's sketches. However, beneath the novel's light-hearted facade lies a poignant exploration of suffering and resilience. Each character embodies a unique struggle with pain, revealing methods—successful or not—of holding despair at bay. They all play a vital role in influencing Miss Lonelyhearts' turmoil and his desperate pursuit of an all-encompassing remedy. These figures also encapsulate the essence of the Depression-era world West witnessed, and echo timeless literary archetypes. Despite their often minimalistic depiction, these characters—like the unrealistically conceived Shrike with his "triangular face like a hatchet"—emerge as simultaneously comical and intricate contributors to the unfolding tragedy.

Miss Lonelyhearts, whose true identity remains nameless, initially approaches his advice column with a sense of irony. However, as he delves deeper into the heartfelt letters of his correspondents, he becomes consumed by their agony, deeply troubled by each falsehood that touches their lives and his own amid the spiritual desolation of the Depression. Yet, every attempt he makes is met with Shrike's cynical retort, a persistent claim that truth is nonexistent. This philosophy fills Shrike's existence with torment, but paradoxically, his suffering validates his belief, establishing his position as the most astute. In parallel, every character, although burdened by their pain, clings tenaciously to their convictions. The anguish articulated in the anonymous, emblematic letters from figures like "Disillusioned with Tubercular Husband" remains authentic and raw, even in the shadow of Shrike's satirical invocations and the half-formed survival tactics of Miss Lonelyhearts' acquaintances.