62 pages • 2-hour read
The Bletchley Riddle
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Character Analysis
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and wartime violence against civilians.
Jakob
Jakob Novis is one of two protagonists, alongside his younger sister, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Novis. He is the son of his late English father and his American mother, Willa, whom he believes to have died in Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland. He is 19 years old, and he works at Bletchley Park with a top-secret team of code breakers hoping to break the code produced by the Enigma machine that the Germans use to communicate. He loves solving ciphers and riddles, and he thoroughly enjoys his work—at the expense of his other, more emotional obligations. The secretive nature of his work and his generally avoidant nature have left him out of touch with his sister. When she evades their grandmother’s plan to send her to the US, Lizzie becomes Jakob’s problem, and he struggles to navigate her demands that he communicate with her openly.
His distance from Lizzie isn’t intentional or malicious. He is absorbed by his work, which he rightfully sees as crucial to the war effort. He also naturally struggles to get along with many people, not just her. He frequently has a wry sense of humor that sometimes helps him avoid the emotional weight of a situation. He is also deeply wounded by the loss of his father, whom he was very close with. Their dad suddenly died of a heart attack some time ago, and Jakob thinks that he wants “never to be that shocked by anything ever again. And I mean to keep that promise. I came to Bletchley Park to work” (149). This provides context for his behavior, in particular his refusal in the early novel to consider Lizzie’s belief that Willa has survived. Despite Willa’s unusual circumstances and Lizzie’s growing pile of evidence that they don’t know the truth of what happened to her, he is scared to get his hopes up and possibly be disappointed after all. He’d rather simply accept that she’s dead.
This attitude changes steadily over the course of the novel. He bonds with Lizzie, as she refuses to distance herself from him and confronts him often. He is forced to grapple with his emotional repression and rekindle his bond with his sibling. It isn’t easy, as their dynamic suffers under The Burden of Secrets. There are many things that would be easier for them to speak about and navigate together if he was allowed to speak openly about his work, which is truly important, but Lizzie cannot know about it, and so she struggles to understand his distance from her. Nonetheless, he grows to understand her, and has become more optimistic and emotionally at peace by the book’s end.
Lizzie
Jakob’s 14-year-old sister, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Novis is a precocious, determined, and highly observant girl. One of the two narrators, her story opens with her crafty escape from her handler, Mr. Fleetwood, whom her grandmother sent to bring her back to the US. This demonstrates early on that Lizzie is resourceful and independent. Much like her brother, she enjoys discovering secrets and solving problems, though she goes about it in different ways. She tends to approach problems head-on. While Jakob focuses on the big picture, Lizzie is more detail-oriented. She is dismissive of Jakob’s work despite not fully knowing what it is, preoccupied instead with his unwillingness to communicate with her and investigate Willa’s death.
Her focus exposes how optimistic she is, something that is crucial but at times limiting. Her determination to figure out what happened to her mother doesn’t contribute to a wider effort like the Bletchley code breakers do, and the odds of her finding the truth are low. However, her goals are still important. Lizzie’s affection and support for the individuals around her is also essential to maintaining The Nature of Wartime Spirit, which is defined as having hope despite the trouble surrounding them.
An important aspect of her character development is to mature, accept the real stakes of war, and acknowledge the importance of Jakob’s work as well. When the first night of the Blitz arrives and London is bombed around them, Lizzie finally tells Jakob “I underestimated the importance of your work” (307). This shows how she has grown and how both she and Jakob have come to a compromise in how they choose to approach the world and their own emotions.
Willa Novis
Jakob and Lizzie Novis’s mother, Willa is a member of the American Embassy in Britain. An American herself, she married an English man who has since died of a heart attack. Despite being responsible for her children, particularly the younger Lizzie, Willa requested a secret assignment from the British government to work with Polish codebreakers and go to Poland shortly before a Nazi invasion of the country. While her work is ultimately determined to be good and necessary to the war effort, The Ethics of Espionage and the burden of secrets weigh heavily on her storyline. Her actions leave her children confused, alone, and exposed, and Lizzie’s quest to find Willa endangers her more than if Lizzie had been aware of Willa’s actions from the beginning. Still, in this crucial era in history, Willa’s contribution to the war is deemed more important than being honest with her children.
Willa is characterized by her children as kind and dedicated to helping others—which is exactly why she left. When Nazi bombs fell in Poland, she helped the evacuation efforts despite not being told to, and her help was crucial in saving lives. She embodies traits present in both Lizzie and Jakob, as she contributes to more sweeping war efforts despite the cost to her personal life like Jakob, but she also shows a deep and unwavering dedication to her loved ones. Despite the risks to her life and her mission, she leaves clues behind for her children and briefly visits them in disguise when they’re being confronted by the Colonel. She is left a complex and unreliably depicted character, one who never offers full closure and comfort to her children but who is unwaveringly presented as good.
Colin
Colin, whose family owns The Mutton Inn in which Lizzie stays at Bletchley Park, is a friend to both Jakob and Lizzie, and his friendship with the latter eventually develops into a romance. His brother, Simon, is involved in the Royal Air Force, and Colin follows in his footsteps by being a member of the Home Guard, an army reserve. His family embodies the wartime spirit, as they’re dedicated to supporting both the military efforts and their fellow citizen. Colin is extremely helpful in Lizzie’s quest to find Willa, and his parents show kindness and generosity despite the limited resources during wartime. Their sacrifice is driven home when Simon is shot down over the English Channel, and they are forced to accept that he is missing-in-action. Still, they support those around them despite their grief.
Colin is so helpful to Lizzie because he values her hopefulness. It is some time before he and his family can accept Simon as MIA, and he hopes deeply that—like Willa—Simon may yet return to them. Colin is forced to accept some of Jakob’s realism when he agrees that his brother has been lost to the war, but he remains a kind boy and values his bond with Lizzie.
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