The speaker is a woman processing the end of her five-year relationship with Law. Seeking comfort, she visits her mother's home on an isolated moor, bringing a collection of Emily Brontë's works to read. She attends psychotherapy to address her heartbreak and experiences recurring, intrusive visions of trapped or injured women that she refers to as "Nudes."

The mother lives alone in a quiet house equipped with a tightly packed refrigerator. She maintains a pragmatic, emotionally reserved demeanor, preferring to discuss taxes, the local hairdresser, or the Sears Summer Catalog rather than psychological trauma. She makes a weekly 100-mile round trip to visit her ailing husband, viewing marriage as a steadfast obligation.

The 19th-century English author of *Wuthering Heights* serves as a conversational presence in the speaker's mind. According to the speaker's research, Emily led a solitary life on the moors, without romance or worldly success. She wrote poetry frequently featuring prisons, cages, and severe weather. Her biographical details, such as purportedly cauterizing her own dog bite at age fourteen, occupy the speaker's thoughts heavily.

Law is the speaker's former partner who recently ended their relationship. During their final night together, he admits he lacks the desire to be sexual, though they still spend the evening touching and speaking in a private, made-up language. His departure leaves the speaker emotionally shattered.

The speaker's father is a former World War II navigator whose photograph in his flight crew uniform remains taped to the family refrigerator. He currently suffers from Alzheimer's disease and dementia. His illness reduces his communication to wild appeals and syllables, a sharp decline from his past heroic identity.

Dr. Haw is the psychotherapist the speaker sees to process the loss of Law. He offers standard therapeutic advice, noting that grief takes a long time, and bluntly questions why the speaker refuses to look away from her disturbing hallucinations.

Emily's sister and fellow writer who acts as a posthumous editor for Emily's work. The speaker reads Charlotte's prefaces and alterations, determining that Charlotte deliberately avoids addressing the frightening, raw power present in her sister's writing.

The notoriously cruel male protagonist of Emily Brontë's novel. The speaker views him as a "pain devil" consumed by sexual despair, utilizing his dramatic suffering to make sense of her own romantic devastation.

The central female character of *Wuthering Heights*. She famously compares her love for Heathcliff to buried, eternal rocks, offering the speaker a framework for understanding inescapable emotional bonds.

An enigmatic entity that appears in Emily Brontë's poetry. Thou communicates with Emily through the night wind, maintaining a mysterious, non-sexual bond that occasionally blurs the lines between master and victim.