Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift, the eighteenth century satirist and poet, here a spirit called up in a séance. The ghost of Swift resembles the man at a more or less recognizable point in his life, during old age but before his descent into madness. In his two dialogues with the spirit forms of the women whom he loved, the satirist’s wry cynicism has turned to bitterness and paranoia. In countering Vanessa’s passionate offer of marriage, he describes his own “disease of the blood” and the more general malaise of a debased humanity. Swift is caught at that point in his late life where intellectual arrogance is waging a losing struggle with the social chaos that he believes is about to engulf him. His ghostly encounter with Stella, whose poem provides the “words” of the title, represents, however, a brief recurrence of the younger Swift, capable of redemption through intellectual grace and courage.

John Corbet

John Corbet, a graduate student at the University of Cambridge, a specialist in Swift’s life and work. Corbet’s initial skepticism about contact with the spirit world dissolves as the play progresses; the ghostly colloquies between Swift and Vanessa and between Swift and Stella convince him that he has discovered the “mystery” behind Swift’s celibacy. Although the revelation affords Corbet a measure of intellectual exaltation for its own sake, he also clearly views the discovery as a stepping-stone in his own scholarly advancement. To an extent, Corbet also serves as provider of literary background. His historical and critical asides to Dr. Trench and to Mrs. Henderson supply the audience with facts about Swift’s life and his relationships with Vanessa and Stella, insights crucial to an understanding of the play.

Dr. Trench

Dr. Trench, an elderly scholar, president of the Dublin Spiritualists’ Association. Trench serves as the play’s moral and intellectual pivot; like Corbet, he is an intellectual, a man of reason. He also has become convinced of more ghostly realities, enabling him to glimpse the boundary between reason and passion. At the same time that he holds the overly emotional and superstitious impulses of the other séance participants in check, he lends credibility to the séance’s central action, the calling up of ghosts. As Corbet acts as dramatic channel for literary and historical information about Swift, Trench serves as an interpreter of spiritualist practice and Dublin legend.

Ester Vanhomrigh

Ester Vanhomrigh, called Vanessa, Swift’s lover and protégé. Vanessa appears in the first of Swift’s two dialogues with the women he loved. She describes her loyalty and passion to an obdurate Swift and rationally demands a reason for his refusal to marry. Why, she asks, has he raised her from her humble station, educating and “refining” her, if he does not love her? When Swift counters that he feels disgust at the prospect of siring children, she leaves him to his solitude.

Esther Johnson

Esther Johnson, called Stella, Swift’s lover. The second of the women in Swift’s life, Stella is more nearly his equal than Vanessa. In his brief scene with her, he describes his admiration for her intellectual excellence and specifically praises her poem to him. She is the representative of those women who are able to love “according to the soul,” and, at least according to Swift, thereby possess greater happiness than those who experience bodily love. During the opening scenes of the play, Trench informs Corbet that the house in which the séance takes place originally was Stella’s.

Mrs. Henderson

Mrs. Henderson, a simple Irishwoman, a medium through whom the spirits of Swift, Vanessa, and Stella pass. Mrs. Henderson’s role is largely passive. She serves...