Elizabeth is a pregnant collier's wife living in the mining community of Brinsley Colliery. Burdened by domestic labor, she harbors deep bitterness over her husband's heavy drinking and frequent absences. Despite her emotional detachment and practical focus, she diligently tends to her domestic duties and her children while waiting anxiously for her husband to return from his shift.

Walter is a collier at the Brinsley Colliery and Elizabeth's husband. Once known as a spirited and handsome young man, his increasing reliance on alcohol drains the family's finances and creates a deep rift in his marriage. His failure to return home after his shift serves as the primary source of tension in the household.

An elderly woman who dotes heavily on her son, Walter. Highly emotional and prone to romanticizing the past, she remembers Walter warmly as a happy, spirited boy. Her demonstrative nature and tendency to ignore his current destructive behaviors put her at odds with Elizabeth's practical stoicism.

An engine driver at the colliery who stops briefly by the cottage to accept a cup of tea from his daughter. He is a pragmatic working man whose plan to remarry soon after his first wife's passing causes friction and emotional distance between him and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth and Walter's young daughter. Cheerful and emotionally open, she admires the beauty of the fire and the smell of the chrysanthemums. Her optimistic vitality sets her apart from the grim environment of the colliery and her mother's hardened demeanor.

Elizabeth and Walter's young son. Sullen and irritable, he pulls petals from the chrysanthemum bushes and complains about the darkness in the cottage. He seems to have absorbed the gloom of his environment, often hiding in the shadows away from his mother.

A fellow collier's wife living in a crowded home near the mine. Overwhelmed by the domestic labor of raising twelve children, she is somewhat deferential to Elizabeth and quickly shares neighborhood gossip.

A miner who works alongside Walter at the Brinsley Colliery. Marked by a blue coal-dust scar from a previous mining accident, he acts nervously and respectfully when Elizabeth arrives at his home to ask about her husband's whereabouts.