Characters Discussed
Henry
Henry, a successful playwright in his forties for whom writing about love is difficult. His play, A House of Cards, has just opened. Its first act is the first act of The Real Thing. Henry, a partially autobiographical character, changes in the course of the play as he is educated in what love is by the three women in his life: his former wife, his current wife, and his daughter. Acknowledging to his precocious teenage daughter the verity of her perception of him as an ironist in public and a prig in private, he reluctantly accepts modern attitudes toward marriage as the result of his wife’s affairs and his daughter’s colorfully honest appraisal of him. As a husband, he takes his wives for granted and leaves them with unfulfilled needs. His belief in the artist’s removal from personal emotions and political causes creates tensions with Annie, as it had with his first wife. As an artist, he believes in the innocence, neutrality, and precision of words as the means for building “bridges across incomprehension and chaos” and regards his short-lived rival in love, Brodie, as a writer of rubbish. Even so, he finally admits that in love, unlike art, “dignified cuckoldry, although difficult, can be done.”
Annie
Annie, Henry’s second wife, a twenty-five-year-old actress and activist in political marches. She is Henry’s mistress at the start of the play. Like her predecessor, Charlotte, in Henry’s real life, she takes lovers and argues with Henry about her needs. Her roles bring her into close contact with Billy, another actor, and her activism in liberal movements involves her with a politically committed dramatist, Brodie, who is boorish and artistically inferior to Henry. She reacts angrily to Henry’s jealousy of Brodie with a reference to Henry’s “fastidious taste.”
Brodie
Brodie, a twenty-five-year-old loutish dramatist who has spent time in prison as a result of his protests against nuclear missiles and other political injustices. He meets Annie on a train en route to a demonstration and interests her in a role in his television play. As a dramatist committed to causes, he writes with his “guts” and is incensed when he discovers that Henry, at Annie’s request, has rewritten a television play that Brodie wrote.
Charlotte
Charlotte, Henry’s former wife, roughly thirty-five years old, who serves as a double character—in Henry’s play and in The Real Thing. In both, she is the unfaithful wife. She informs Henry that he cannot write plays about women and that she has had a number of lovers, the most recent of whom was an architect. In the play within the play, Charlotte is married to Max, who is also an architect. Charlotte, as Henry’s former wife, educates him regarding his erroneous view of marriage as a commitment that is finished when made, insisting that it needs daily renewal.
Debbie
Debbie, Charlotte and Henry’s very modern seventeen-year-old daughter, who has her own advice for Henry in regard to his marital problems. She states that free love is free of the old propaganda and that exclusive rights to a person “isn’t love, it’s colonization.” Her father’s own daughter, she is as articulate about her views on free love as Henry is about his love of language.
Billy
Billy, an actor, about twenty-two years old, with whom Annie rehearses love scenes from August Strindberg’s Miss Julie and John Ford’s Tis Pity She’s a Whore. Both rehearsals become metaphors for Annie’s affair with Billy. Billy likes the content of Brodie’s plays even as he recognizes that Henry is a much better writer.
Max
Max, who is about...
(This entire section contains 705 words.)
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forty years old, also an actor and a double character who appears in both plays. InThe House of Cards, he is the architect, and in The Real Thing, he is in love with Annie and, consequently, despondent at the news of her affair with Henry. He eventually falls in love again and calls at the end to inform Henry that if it were not for Henry, he would not be currently engaged. His roles in both the play and the play within the play are minor.
Characters
Last Updated October 7, 2024.
Annie
Annie is an actress married to Max, but she is having an affair with Henry. She
urges Henry to confess the affair, yet she is the one who ultimately discloses
it to Max. In Act II, Annie secures the role of August Strindberg’s Miss
Julie in a Glasgow production and begins another affair with her co-star,
Billy.
Annie is driven by political ideals and is dedicated to the campaign for Brodie’s release. She motivates Brodie to write an autobiographical play, hoping it will bolster support for their cause. The play is so poorly written that Annie asks Henry to rewrite it, though she refuses to admit its flaws to him. Henry initially resists but eventually agrees. In the final scene, Annie turns on Brodie, hurling a bowl of dip in his face. At the same time, she appears to end her affair with Billy and returns to Henry.
Billy
Billy is a young actor who falls in love with Annie. His passion and sincerity
captivate her, offering a stark contrast to Henry's reserved displays of
affection.
Brodie
Though Brodie is frequently discussed throughout the play, he only appears
onstage in the final scene. Annie’s assertions about his idealism are revealed
to be false. His act of setting fire to the wreath of the Unknown Soldier was
not a political gesture but an attempt to impress Annie, whom he had just met.
Brodie is also shown to be unappreciative and chauvinistic.
Charlotte
Charlotte is the leading actress in Henry’s new play, House of Cards,
and she is also Henry’s wife. Their marriage is not a happy one. Henry’s
sarcasm has distanced Charlotte, and she criticizes his writing for lacking
strong female characters. Although Charlotte is offstage for much of the play,
she reappears in a pivotal scene with Henry and Debbie, where she admits to
having had nine affairs during their marriage. More significant than her
infidelity is her perspective on commitment and marriage, which she shares in
this scene.
Debbie
Debbie is the seventeen-year-old daughter of Henry and Charlotte. She appears
in the second act, showcasing her worldly understanding in a conversation with
her father about sex and love. Debbie argues that sex is not mysterious and
doesn’t merit the exaggerated attention it receives. Her father appreciates her
verbal prowess but disagrees with her views, calling her a sophist. Debbie’s
practical remarks reflect the younger generation's perspective on sex and
love.
Henry
Henry, a prominent playwright from London, serves as the central character of
the play. He is married to Charlotte, who stars in his current production,
House of Cards. Despite their marriage, Henry is distanced from
Charlotte and is involved in an affair with Annie. Both Henry and Annie decide
to leave their partners to start a new life together. However, their
relationship faces challenges when they clash over Brodie’s play and Henry
discovers Annie’s infidelity.
Henry’s quick wit and verbal skill often lead him into trouble as much as they contribute to his achievements. Despite his humor and intelligence, he can be sharply sarcastic and intensely rude, showing little patience for others' flawed reasoning or vague expressions. Henry tends to speak as if he were a character in a play, which hampers his ability to convey genuine emotions. He is most persuasive when discussing his belief in the purity of language and defending his literary views.
Throughout the play, Henry experiences significant personal growth. He ultimately learns to express love and passion with sincere language, altering his perception of love in the process.
Max
Max is the leading actor in Henry’s latest play, House of Cards, where
he portrays an architect who uncovers his wife’s infidelity. In real life, Max
is married to Annie.
In the third and final scene in which Max appears onstage, he mirrors his character’s confrontation of infidelity in House of Cards by addressing Annie about her affair with Henry. Despite his efforts to win her back with flowers and phone calls, he fails. By the play’s conclusion, Max has found new love and is preparing to remarry, highlighting a stark contrast between his newfound happiness and Henry’s more somber relationship with Annie.