54 pages • 1-hour read
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
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Character Analysis
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, pregnancy termination, and death.
Major Ernest Pettigrew
Major Ernest Pettigrew, called the Major throughout the novel, is the protagonist of the novel, and the third-person narration stays close to his point of view. At the time the story opens, he is 68 years old. The Major is a British man who was born in Lahore, India, while his father, Colonel Pettigrew, was stationed there in the service of the British Army. Ernest was the eldest child, while his brother, Bertie, was a couple of years younger. (The narrative suggests that the Major went into the Army because of his pride in the Pettigrew name and in his father’s service.) After his father’s military service was completed, the Pettigrews returned to the family home of Rose Lodge, a cottage dating to the 17th century, which the Major inherited and where he now continues to live.
The Major is a man of staunchly traditional British principles and believes in the values of decorum, tradition, and good sense. He is also reticent by nature. As Grace notes of him, “I’ve always admired you for being a sensible man […] Sometimes you don’t like to speak up, but usually I can tell that you know the right thing to do” (290). While Frank Ferguson kids the Major for his dry sense of humor, the Major is typically drawn to stating the truth in an understated manner when he believes correction is called for. For the most part, he is compelled by principle, patriotism, and pride and believes in standing up for what is right. He is not, however, a fan of sudden change or modern aesthetics, which leads to several moments of humor in the novel, as well as an ongoing thematic study of the conflicts between tradition and modernity.
The Major was married for several years to Nancy, who had a more outgoing nature and free spirit. They were happy together and had one son, Roger. Nancy and the Major had much in common, including their sense that Marjorie, Bertie’s wife, was pretentious and vulgar. Nancy died of illness six years before the novel begins, and the Major has lived alone since that time. He has friends and often associates with acquaintances at his golf club, but when he meets Mrs. Ali, the Major realizes that he has come to feel a bit lonely.
The Major’s initial concerns in the novel are to reconcile his father’s wishes that his prized guns, a pair of Churchill shotguns that he bequeathed to each of his boys, should be reunited. The Major prizes his gun and relishes the idea of having his guns admired, as if they are a reflection of his taste and good sense. Over the course of the novel, as he witnesses his son’s own selfish behavior and becomes closer to Mrs. Ali, the Major learns that his values might have been out of place. His character arc entails his gradual realization that personal relationships matter more to him than decorum, and he is ready to appear ridiculous and defy tradition, convention, and prejudice in order to be with the woman he loves.
Mrs. Ali (Jasmina)
Mrs. Ali, whose first name is Jasmina, is a major character in the novel and serves as the Major’s love interest. She challenges him to choose passion over pride and to stand up to tradition. She is 58 years old when the novel opens, and a widow. Her father, who was born in India, was a professor of applied mathematics and came to Britain to teach at Cambridge University. Her father loved to read and taught his daughter to appreciate literature and to learn several languages, believing that it was important to be cosmopolitan and at ease in several places in the world. Jasmina has never traveled outside of England, but she married Ahmed Ali, a man of Pakistani descent, and settled with him in the small village of Edgecombe St. Mary. They never had children, and because of this, Jasmina now feels attached to her nephew, Abudl Wahid. (Her husband Ahmed died nearly two years before to the story’s opening.)
Jasmina enjoys running the shop, especially since this gives her independence, which she prizes. She doesn’t wish to turn the shop over to Abdul Wahid or live with her husband’s family because she realizes that she will be expected to provide companionship and fulfill the domestic duties of childcare. Jasmina is intelligent and industrious, and she enjoys reading, especially the literary classics. She wishes to make friends with the village women and is happy to develop a friendship with Grace.
However, Jasmina is also very secure in herself, and while she deeply believes in doing what is right, she also refuses to be bullied. This leaves her torn between doing what her family expects of her, fulfilling the sense of obligations she feels to the Alis, and following her own inclinations, and her struggle reflects The Tension Between Family Obligations and Personal Fulfillment. Jasmina is confident about her accomplishments and her skills, which include driving a car. She is gentle in her manner and easily amused, but she is also direct and expresses herself clearly. She does not wish to be the target of discrimination, nor does she wish to be an object of fascination because of her family’s heritage.
From the beginning of the book until its end, Jasmina is true to herself and her beliefs. She wishes for Abdul Wahid and Amina to find happiness together not because she thinks it is important to conform to traditional family structures but because she believes they are in love and she hopes they will be happy. She feels full of affection for George and is hurt when she sees him encounter discrimination for his race. She is not ignorant of the ignorance and cruelty that others around her might exercise, but she refuses to be angry, bitter, or cowed. Instead, she remains a gracious, elegant, warm woman of good sense and good nature, who chooses, when the Major comes to rescue her from her in-laws, to follow her heart.
Roger Pettigrew
Roger is the Major and Nancy’s only son. He was born when Nancy had given up on having children, and the Major suspects Roger was spoiled as a consequence. The Major did his part not to allow Roger to be what he thought of as weak, but this resulted in small slights that Roger remembers. Certain of Roger’s comments suggest he feels his father frequently diminishes him, while the Major sees Roger as being stiff and self-absorbed. Though he is a secondary and supporting character in the novel, Roger plays an important role in helping the Major realize what kind of man he wishes to be and how he wishes to treat other people in his life.
Roger is a vice president at the private equity firm of Chelsea Equity Partners. He is tall, has brown hair, and is rather attractive, or at least he was attractive to Gertrude, Lord Dagenham’s niece, who had a crush on him when they were younger. Roger is devoted to advancing in his career and puts his ambition above everything, including his relationship with his girlfriend, Sandy. Roger is very invested in appearances and is always looking for ways to make money as he wants to pursue—and be seen pursuing—a certain lifestyle. This includes having a weekend cottage in the country where he can go to escape London. Roger puts his own interests above other people. While he expresses the sense that he feels obligated to look after his father—one reason he suggests finding a cottage near Edgecombe St. Mary—he misses family gatherings when it suits him, including Bertie’s funeral and the Christmas dinner that Grace and the Major cook for him.
Roger is more of a casual than a venomous racist, thoughtlessly engaging in prejudices such as suspecting that Abdul Wahid might be a terrorist merely because he is Muslim. Yet Roger can be cruel as well, as when he persuades Sandy to terminate a pregnancy because he believes that becoming a father will impair his career. At the end of the book, Roger’s self-absorbed and calculating ways leave him without a partner, but he does express a measure of affection for and attachment to his father. He is a complex and contradictory character who adds conflict to the novel and compels his father to contend with the prospect of accepting and caring for a family member who is not inherently an honorable person.
Abdul Wahid
Abdul Wahid is Jasmina’s nephew. He is the son of her brother-in-law, Dawid Ali, who was her husband Ahmed’s brother. Abdul Wahid is described by the Major as “a young man of twenty-five or so” who “carrie[s] himself stiffly, a hint of insolence in his gaze, as if he were always prepared to meet some new insult” (14). His name means “Servant of God” (174), and this fact reflects his devotion to the Islamic faith. It is suggested that his devoutness is a relatively recent development, perhaps the result of being sent to Pakistan by his family to live with relatives there after he fell in love with Amina, who lives in the same town as the Alis do.
Abdul Wahid did not know that he had a child, George, until Amina finds and confronts him, and this development presents him with a dilemma. He believes that the right thing is to marry Amina and create a conventional family structure for George, but he is also concerned because Amina does not share his faith, and he fears that this fundamental difference in worldview may lead to disagreements between them. Abdul Wahid is portrayed as being sulky and even forbidding, but these personality quirks are revealed to be based upon his strict notions of principle and duty. He therefore stands as both a foil to and an echo of the Major. Abdul Wahid prioritizes his belief in the values of honor and duty before his wish to be with Amina, and this inner conflict leads him to feel torn by shame and hopelessness, just as it leads Amina to decide not to marry him. Abdul Wahid’s affection for George parallels the Major’s affection for Roger, suggesting that fatherhood is one position that can combine love and duty.
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