43 pages • 1 hour read
A Great Deliverance
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Character Analysis
Content Warning: This section of the guide features depictions of illness, death, child death, sexual violence and harassment, rape, child sexual abuse, child abuse, emotional abuse, disordered eating, and sexual content.
Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley (8th Earl of Asherton)
Thomas Lynley is the novel’s co-protagonist and a foil for his partner, Barbara Havers. Lynley is a round, dynamic character and is introduced to the audience as a pompous aristocrat. Other members of the police department always mention his wealth and status along with his talent as an investigator. Uncommonly for someone on the police force, Lynley is from the upper classes. He works out of passion for the job rather than to earn money. This status has the effect of alienating him from his peers, since they cannot relate to his decision not to simply pursue a life of luxury.
Lynley is self-isolating and encourages this alienation. He does not want people to get close to him because he fears making himself vulnerable. As a defense mechanism, he performs the role of a charming, carefree aristocrat for whom nothing is truly serious. Havers is one of the few people who is able to glimpse behind this mask. That he is willing to drop this mask—even for a second—shows that he is coming to trust Havers.
Lynley exemplifies The Corrosive Nature of Guilt. He became a detective because he has sins in his past for which he must atone.
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