Give the character sketch of:

1) Mrs. Slater
2) Mrs. Jordan
3) Victoria
4) Ben
5) Henry
6) Abel

1. Mrs. Slater is a vigorous and plump lady who stays prepared to do any amount of straight talking to get her own way. It is understood that she is very dominating by the way she treats her daughter. She is insensitive too. She does not believe in making any sort of kind gestures or suggestions. She is shown to be very greedy and quite a huge opportunist.

2. Mrs. Jordan is a stout and complacent woman. She is impassive and always has an irritating air around her. She is very witty and sharp. She holds the capacity to drive a hard bargain over things to gain possession. She too is a greedy person who takes every opportunity to criticise the Slaters and finally decides to take her father with her just for the sake of money.

3. Victoria is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Slater and grandaughter of Mr. Abel Merry weather she is a precious girl of ten her childlike simplicity can be reflected though various events in drama she is an innocent and a simple girl when the play opens she is gallvanting in the shreet unconicous of the fact , that her grandfather is lying dead, and cold upsairs she is not able to understand whats all going in the house …as when she goes upstairs to fetch the bunch of keys as per her mother instructions …when she comes back she is scared and exclaims emotionally that grandpa is getting up…she fails to understand trick of her parents…..she simply calls it stealing !! Victoria is great love for her grandpa..

4. Ben is surely a practical and a very big hypocrite in the play The Dear Departed. He is practical when he says that everyone has got to die some day. This shows that he is not at all mournful of the fact that Abel passed away. Ben called Abel Merry Weather ‘the drunken old beggar’ because the latter had not paid the premium for his insurance. This meant that none of the family members would be able to get his insurance money. This angered and disgusted everyone in their family. This incidence shows that Ben was very logical, and very materialistic. He did not believe in the importance of relationships.

5. Henry Slater is a man who has no will of his own and no say in the house. He is Amelia’s husband, Victoria’s father and the son-in-law of Abel Merry Weather. He has a drooping moustache and a heavy built. He wears a black tail coat, grey trousers, black tie and a hat. Henry does what his wife tells him to do. He’s not bad and greedy in nature like his wife Amelia, but he hides some things of Grandpa before the arrival of Amelia’s sister. He did this because his wife asked him to. He also wears the slippers of his dead father-in-law because his wife asks him to do it.

6. Abel Merryweather was an old man, widower and stayed with his daughter Amelia. One morning Amelia found her father dead in his bed. Instead of calling the doctor, she confirms her father’s death. She calls her sister’s family to divide their father’s property.