Described as the “steadfast matriarch of the Pennacook Winslows” (5), Connie is known for her principles and “moral certainty” (5). It is Connie who decides that her daughters will get “virtue” names, hoping to instill in them the qualities associated with their names. Connie also devises a principled model to assimilate the au pairs into her family, such as strictly referring to their salaries as “allowances” and treating them like her daughters.

Like Thomas, Connie comes from a privileged old-money family. The Bradfords, her ancestors, were among those who came aboard the Mayflower. Like Thomas, Connie is disliked by the Pennacook townspeople for her idealism and superior-sounding manners. As an example, the townspeople dislike Connie’s use of the foreign word “au pair” for the nannies, thinking she uses it to sound educated. However, for the precise Connie, the term is used literally, since in French, au pair means “on equal terms” (7).

Connie’s love for Thomas forms the heart of the novel and the family. She often thinks of her husband as “my Tommy” and has enormous patience for Thomas’s stubbornness. When Thomas initially refuses to adopt their fourth au-pair from Maine, Constance waits him out, the tide turning her way eventually. Though Connie shares Thomas’s radical views, her manner of expression is more measured than her husband’s. Connie also gets embarrassed by her children’s frankness around sex and human bodies. When Chantal and Jimmy seek her help in researching circumcision at the library, Constance is described as “succumbing” to the task. A well-rounded character, Connie represents the ideal, progressive woman and mother in the novel, and can also be described as the novel’s moral compass.

The titular “Queen Esther” of the title, Esther is an American woman of Viennese-Jewish origin who ultimately migrates to Israel. Esther is tall and well-built; when she meets Constance and Jimmy for the first time, they feel she towers over them. She is also charismatic and a natural leader, as is evident at the onset of the novel when the boys and girls of the orphanage are loathe to part from her. Esther is a strong individualist with a mind of her own. She speaks in clear, well-formed sentences even as a small child. Esther’s parents died before she was four, and she was left at the doorstep of Dr. Larch’s orphanage. Since Dr. Larch raises Esther in her Jewish heritage, she is passed over for adoption, becoming a ward of the state in her teens.

Despite the difficulties of her initial years, Esther continues to be resilient and dynamic. Embodying Survival and Identity in the Face of Prejudice, Esther uses her Jewish heritage, her beliefs, and her chosen family with the Winslows to carve her path in life. It is clear Esther’s Jewish heritage is vital to her, even though she is agnostic, much like her two father-figures, Dr. Larch and Thomas. Esther’s affinity for her heritage is a way for her to remain connected to the memory of her mother. When Esther arrives at St. Cloud’s, she tells Dr. Larch that her mother told her she was Jewish and told her stories from the Old Testament.

As Esther learns that her mother was brutally killed by antisemites, she grows even more protective of her Jewish identity. For instance, she insists on retaining her last name “Nacht,” or night, because of its German-Jewish roots; further, as time passes the name reminds her of Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass), a 1938 Nazi pogrom against Jewish citizens, marked by the sounds of smashed glass throughout Germany and Austria. The persecution of the Jewish people in Germany and other countries dominated by the Nazis further pushes Esther towards Zionism, the belief that Jewish people can only be safe in the Biblical promised land of Israel. Esther’s belief plays a part in her deciding that her biological son, Jimmy, will not be raised Jewish.

When Esther goes to Jerusalem in the 1930s, Jerusalem and Haifa are in Mandatory Palestine, governed by the British. As the independent country of Israel is formed in 1948, Esther goes off-page, information on her arriving only through letters and conversations. It is strongly suggested that Esther works for the Mossad, the intelligence arm of Israel, and the IDF, the Israeli Army, though the remit of her work remains unclear. The lack of information on Esther adds to her mystique, building her up further as a quasi-mythical character.

Esther’s hiddenness ties into the Biblical backstory of her name: In the Book of Esther, the title character hides her Jewish identity in Persia, revealing it only to save her people. Irving provides a parallel in his Esther, who watches over the Winslows despite remaining in the background. As the novel ends, Esther meets the adult Jimmy in person for the first time, and it becomes clear that she stayed away from him as an act of love, not wanting Jimmy to get involved in the conflict of Israel and Palestine. Thus, Esther symbolizes sacrifice and love in the novel.

Faith, Hope, and Prudence are the older three daughters (in that order) of Thomas and Connie, while Honor is the youngest, born 11 years after Prudence’s birth. Hope grows up to become a nurse, while Prudence is a doctor. Both Faith and Hope get married and raise children. Following in the footsteps of Hope and Esther, Honor becomes a nurse as well, though she specializes in obstetrics.

The Winslow sisters are depicted as progressive, well-read, loquacious, and deeply attached to each other. Their bond is so strong the townsfolk of Pennacook deem them odd, wondering “whoever heard of four daughters who uncritically love and support each other?” (93). The sisters are often presented as talking over each other and indulging in frequent digressions; however, their manner of speaking and attitudes are similar, analogous to a chorus in drama. Prudence, the doctor, often brings medical terminology to her conversations, a habit which makes the other sisters groan in good-natured annoyance. For instance, when she describes Thomas’s condition to Jimmy as being linked to a “paroxysmal atrial fibrillation” (342), Faith interrupts her, asking Prudence to “cut to the killer” (342).

The choric voice of the Winslow sisters forms the comforting backdrop to Jimmy’s life, reminding him home is filled with many sympathetic and loving maternal figures. Like Esther, who raised her, Honor is highly individualistic and sure-minded about her choices, evinced by her decision to have a baby with Esther, even though the two women are not romantically involved. As Jimmy grows up, Honor is a warm, attentive mother, thoroughly researching decisions about his upbringing. At the same time, she tends to overwhelm Jimmy with her opinions, such as when she repeatedly writes to him to get a woman pregnant in Vienna. Honor is keenly aware of the odds against him: In Pennacook society, Jimmy is seen as an outsider, not quite a Winslow. Like Esther, she wishes to keep Jimmy safe and far away from conflict.

The biological son of Esther Nacht and Moshe “Little Mountain,” Jimmy is adopted in infancy by Honor Winslow. Although the novel is named after Jimmy’s mother, Esther, Jimmy serves as its functional protagonist, the narrative tracking him from infancy to fatherhood and literary success.

Like his biological father Moshe and his grandfather Thomas Winslow, Jimmy is compact in build but strong. At Esther’s request, Jimmy is not raised explicitly Jewish, though Esther does ask the Winslows to ensure Jimmy stands up for Jewish people being persecuted. Jimmy, who like all Winslows champions the underdog, fulfils his biological mother’s wishes by standing up to antisemitic bullies throughout the novel. Like Moshe, Jimmy takes to wrestling, although his preferred style is freestyle rather than Moshe’s Greco-Roman.

As a child, Jimmy is portrayed as a conscientious, disciplined, and methodical student, even though he tends to take his time to finish his work. Thomas often worries that Jimmy may be too much of a dreamer to succeed at conventional life. He is uninterested in Math and takes a long time to finish his schoolwork. Jimmy is redeemed by his conscientiousness, rewriting his assignments obsessively.

It is suggested that Jimmy grows up overprotected, watched over by the large Winslow clan and their friends. Acutely aware of the “outsider” status from Jimmy’s unusual parentage, the Winslows want to shield him from life’s uglier aspects. However, in the process they tend to curb his autonomy, as evident in the case of Honor’s insistence that Jimmy resort to outlandish methods to escape the Vietnam draft. Although Jimmy knows Honor’s heart is in the right place, he insists on going to Vienna to get a break from her over-protectiveness and find himself. The decision to go to Vienna as well as his clear resolve to be a writer despite Thomas’s misgivings show that the mild-mannered Jimmy is resolute in his own way.

Jimmy also has complicated feelings around his adoption: Although he loves the Winslows, he does not fully feel like either a Winslow or a Nacht.

Early fatherhood at 23 years old proves a decisive experience for Jimmy, making him empathize better with Honor, Esther, Thomas, and Connie. His own overwhelming love for his daughter Vienna makes Jimmy see why Esther and Honor have always tried to protect him. Thomas’s death and Vienna’s birth catalyze Jimmy into adulthood, making him see that he has to author his own life. The many romans a clef—books inspired by a writer’s own life—Jimmy writes indicate that he writes to process his reality.

Jimmy is a three-dimensional and dynamic character because he changes throughout the novel. Even in the last chapter, Jimmy quickly revises his understanding of himself once he understands Esther. He realizes that he is Honor’s child, and Esther’s ally. Jimmy’s willingness to change his views indicates that he is a character with an evolving arc.

Jimmy’s housemates in Vienna, Claude and Jolanda are important minor characters in the novel, going on to become Jimmy’s friends for life. They quickly become Jimmy’s family in Vienna, with their liberal ideas, frankness about sex, and talkativeness making them analogues to the Winslow sisters. Claude is French, and Jimmy describes him as “small and furtive” (193), while the Dutch Jolanda is tall and thin, her body shaped by cycling.

When Jimmy meets Claude, the young man is as sexually inexperienced as Jimmy. Jolanda, who identifies as lesbian, has broken up with her girlfriend Mieke over Mieke’s desire to try sex once with a man. Jolanda and Claude are very close, and Jimmy describes them bickering like a married couple. They symbolize love and unconditional support in the novel since they bond with Jimmy at once and watch out for him. Both characters, like Jimmy, find a satisfying resolution: Jolanda reconnects with Mieke, and the two have a baby for Jimmy, while Claude marries Chantal, the young aunt of Jimmy’s childhood friend.

A novelist like Jimmy, Mieke is his wife (though only legally), Vienna’s mother, and the partner of Jolanda. Mieke is generous and sacrificing, agreeing to have a baby for Jimmy so he can avoid the Vietnam draft. She goes on to write Thrown into Relief, her first book, with Claude noticing the novel is described as “intertextual,” just like Jimmy’s The Dickens Man. The shared intertextuality, which refers to works alluding to other literary works, is a metaphor for Jimmy and Mieke’s mutual respect.

Siegfried is blue-eyed and blonde, and 5 years old when Jimmy first meets him. He is always mutilating or killing his plastic soldiers, a habit which alarms Jimmy and Claude. Claude is even “morbidly afraid” (180) of Siegfried, who uses a garlic press to decapitate his toys. Jimmy and Claude’s reaction to Siegfried highlights their own immaturity: Too close to boyhood, they are unable to see Siegfried as a three-dimensional person in the beginning. However, inspired by his tutor Annelies, Jimmy warms up to Siegfried quickly, realizing that Siegfried is sullen because his mother Irmgard does not pay much attention to him, except to scold him.

As the Vienna interlude progresses, Siegfried opens up to the three friends, Jimmy even helping procure Hard Rain for the little boy. Siegfried makes another appearance towards the end of the novel, meeting Jimmy as a grown-up IDF soldier in Jerusalem, revealing he was ultimately adopted by Annelies.

Siegfried’s arc exemplifies the text’s central tenet of nurture—or environment—being as important as nature, or inheritance, in a child’s development. Shaped by Jimmy, Claude, Jolanda, and Annelies, Siegfried grows up to become a cheerful and determined young man. For Jimmy, Siegfried reminds him of his own boyhood self, since Jimmy too did not know his father. By helping Siegfried, Jimmy rescues his own childhood self, a vital step in his journey to becoming a father.

Irmgard is the daughter of Jimmy’s landlady in Vienna, and mother to Siegfried. Jimmy finds Irmgard attractive, despite the fact that Irmgard has antisemitic attitudes. Irmgard’s antisemitism is revealed during her movie-watching sessions with Jimmy, when she vehemently insists most American actors on the screen are not Jewish individuals. Perhaps because of Irmgard’s attitude, Jimmy does not disclose his Jewish heritage to her. Irmgard’s narrow-mindedness makes her analogous to the townsfolk of Pennacook.

Irmgard engages in sex work to make ends meet; to Jimmy, Irmgard’s judgmental attitude despite her own controversial line of work signifies her hypocrisy. However, Irmgard is not an antagonistic character, with the narrative suggesting that she did not necessarily want to be a single mother. Caught in a life that she did not want, Irmgard has turned bitter.

Jimmy turns against Irmgard when he learns that she was only pretending to like him at Honor’s request. However, Irmgard tries to repair her relationship with Jimmy by offering him a sexual encounter with a friend, an offer Jimmy does not take up. Irmgard ultimately emerges as a somewhat sympathetic figure, doing the best she can with her circumstances.