A white woman living in Mississippi who casts herself as a damsel in distress to escape the reality of her domestic life. She cooks breakfast for her family while harboring growing fear and guilt. Her attempts to romanticize her circumstances clash heavily with the violent reality perpetrated by her husband.

The speaker's husband is cast initially in her mind as a chivalrous hero but operates in reality as a cruel and domineering presence. He reacts angrily to court trials and newspaper reports about his actions. He maintains strict control over his household through intimidation.

A 14-year-old Black boy whose youth and innocence directly contradict the sinister archetype the speaker attempts to assign him. He becomes the target of the Fine Prince's racially motivated violence after a confrontation. His clean, young eyes haunt the speaker as she realizes he does not fit the role of a villain.

A mother who represents the devastating consequences of the Fine Prince's violence. She exists primarily in the speaker's mind as a parallel figure of motherhood. Her grief serves as a mirror that forces the speaker to confront the reality of the situation.

One of the speaker's young children. He sits at the breakfast table and becomes the immediate target of his father's volatile temper. His suffering at the hands of his father breaks his mother's romantic illusions.