1922
45 pages • 1-hour read
Stephen King1922
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Character Analysis
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination, child death, death by suicide, sexual content, and death.
Wilfred “Wilf” Leland James
Wilf is the first-person narrator and protagonist of 1922. He is a round, dynamic character who tells his story in retrospect, just before dying by suicide in 1930. At the beginning of the novella, he is married to his wife, Arlette, and has a 14-year-old son, Henry. Although he has 80 acres of farmland, he seeks to add the 100 acres that Arlette inherits from her father. When she insists that she wants to sell lit, Wilf plots to kill her by convincing Henry that it is necessary for them to do so to remain on their farm. Following Arlette’s murder, Wilf is haunted for years by her ghost and the rats that consumed her body once he dropped it down their farm’s old well.
At the start of the novella, Wilf is portrayed as a traditional patriarch in 1922 America. His life is staunchly rooted in his farm, and he prides himself on his land ownership and self-reliance. He is unable to conceive of an alternate life, viewing his wife’s offer of life in the city as “Hell.” His weak point is his ego: He resents his wealthier neighbor, and he’s inherently selfish, caring more about his image than his moral and religious values. Because of this, Wilf’s character is a physical embodiment of the theme of The Violence of Patriarchal Control. He scoffs at the idea of his wife making her own decision about her land, instead insisting that it belongs to him and stopping at nothing to make that a reality. His rigid traditionalism and belief that he is master of both his land and his family are what ultimately lead to his downfall.
Central to this portrayal of Wilf is the manipulation and coercion of his son. He persuades Henry to agree with his logic and manipulates him into thinking that Arlette is somehow their enemy. Although Arlette sparks conflict by slapping Henry and speaking to him lewdly on her last night, it is important to remember that Wilf is the one telling the story. Even if Arlette’s actions are recorded truthfully, Wilf frames these actions as deserving of death as punishment, convincing Henry that she is evil.
Wilf is a classic unreliable narrator, and his character arc is a downward spiral into irrationality. This is a common trope in Gothic horror. Whereas characters in non-horror narratives grow and learn as the plot unfolds, horror protagonists unravel. Wilf’s downfall is a result of his denial after he murders Arlette. Refusing to consider himself guilty, he portrays himself as the victim of Arlette’s supernatural abuse. To him, her revenge is spiteful; she’s just another person who wants to see him fail. Throughout the story, Wilf never apologizes for or expresses his grief over Arlette’s death, emphasizing his stubbornness and belief that he was justified in killing her to save his farm.
Ultimately, Wilf’s arc culminates in his death, emphasizing the theme of The Psychological Consequences of Evil. Though in some ways tragic, his death is the ultimate punishment for his actions against both his wife and his son and his collateral victims, such as his livestock, Shannon, and the victims of Henry and Shannon’s crime spree.
Henry Freeman James
Henry is Wilf and Arlette’s 14-year-old son. He is a round, dynamic character who becomes Wilf’s accomplice in his mother’s murder largely due to Wilf’s manipulation. The murder affects him greatly, and though he never reveals his father’s secret, his moral and emotional states deteriorate. After he impregnates his girlfriend, Shannon, he steals his father’s truck to rescue Shannon from the St. Eusebia Catholic home for girls, where her parents placed her to give birth and put her child up for adoption. He and Shannon then travel west together, committing several crimes along the way. He robs multiple banks, shoots two security guards who try to stop him, and steals multiple cars before eventually crashing one in Nevada while fleeing the police. After Shannon is shot, he takes her to an abandoned shack where she dies from her wounds, and he dies by suicide.
Henry is a foil for Wilf because his feelings and actions after the murder juxtapose Wilf’s. Initially, Henry is portrayed as innocent, clashing with his father’s violence and immorality. While Wilf grimly persists in completing the murder, Henry cries during the attack on his mother and then faints. After the murder, Wilf is elated by his success, but Henry becomes emotionally distant from both Wilf and Shannon. Eventually, he comes to openly defy Wilf’s parenting and uses the murder against him. His use of blackmail shows that he’s learned how to manipulate people emotionally, and his crime spree shows that he’s developed cynicism and callousness. He still loves Shannon, but he does not rescue their baby, instead turning to self-serving, financially motived crimes like his father.
Arlette James
Arlette is Wilf’s wife and the narrative’s antagonist. She is a round, static character whose inheritance of 100 acres from her father provides the inciting action for the novella. Wilf wants to stay on the farm, but Arlette has a different vision: The world is modernizing, and she dreams of selling her acres, moving to the city of Omaha, and starting her own business. She represents the First-Wave feminism of the 1920s in the United States, as the achievement of women’s suffrage in 1920 led to the possibility of new social, political, and professional roles for women. Her death early in the novella represents The Violence of Patriarchal Control, as Wilf can’t tolerate the idea of his wife gaining independence, outearning him, or making decisions for their family.
Though Arlette dies at the beginning of the story, Wilf believes she antagonizes him from beyond the grave. With her supposed army of rats, she haunts him until his sanity deteriorates. The physical presence of her body on the farm continues to be a problem for Wilf after her murder; he must find increasingly complex and costly ways of covering it up, as it is the only evidence of his guilt. Actively or passively, she serves as the manifestation of Wilf’s guilty conscience.
Sheriff Jones
Sheriff Jones is the officer who investigates Arlette’s disappearance. He is a static secondary character who represents law enforcement and the potential for Wilf’s crime to be discovered. He visits the farm three times throughout the story: two days after Arlette’s death at the insistence of Farrington’s lawyer, again when Wilf’s truck is found after Henry stole it, and a final time when he believes that Arlette’s body has been found. However, each time, he is portrayed as largely uninterested in figuring out what happened to Arlette. When he comes the first time, he quickly looks through the house, asking only a few questions and denying Wilf’s offer to let him search the rest of the land. The second time, he comes only because of his friendship with Shannon’s father, blaming Wilf for allowing Henry to impregnate Shannon. The final time, he saves Wilf’s life, getting him to a hospital and ignoring Wilf’s comment that he killed Arlette. In this way, he subverts the trope of the law enforcement character in crime thrillers, who are usually either the protagonist, antagonist, or a catalyst character whose investigation drives the plot.
Sheriff Jones is portrayed as sexist and an extension of Wilf’s beliefs regarding the theme of The Violence of Patriarchal Control. At the end of his first visit to Wilf, Sheriff Jones asks if Wilf wants him to “put her name and description out on the telegraph wife,” insisting that “[s]ometimes a fee-male needs talking to by hand, if you take my meaning […]. A good whacking has a way of sweetening some gals up” (50). Jones’s character underscores the limits of justice in 1922 America. He takes Wilf at his word, never truly follows up on the crime, and openly encourages Wilf to assert control over Arlette should she return, never showing interest in what actually happened. Because there is no legal justice for Wilf’s actions, the novella instead shifts focus onto the moral justice and psychological repercussions of Wilf’s crime.
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