Life After Life

Sylvie is an occasional point-of-view character, and she functions as both mentor and antagonist in the novel. She is the daughter of an artist who left her and her mother in debt when he died, depriving Sylvie of the pleasant lifestyle she had enjoyed. Her mother died of tuberculosis, and Sylvie married Hugh at 18. Sylvie is clever, well-read, opinionated, and determined. Initially, she romanticizes marriage and motherhood, though she later admits she liked her children “best as babies, when they [are] shiny and new” (41). Her delight does not translate to attention; her children are left outside and permitted to wander unsupervised, and Ursula drowns as a young child because Sylvie is not paying attention.

Sylvie’s character arc throughout the novel moves from innocent expectation to bitterness. She begins as a fanciful child who is hurt by the change in her family circumstances and the loss of her pony, whom she grieves more than her father. She is prone to whimsical thoughts and insists a woman’s highest calling is to be a wife and mother. However, at some point during the Great War or after, Sylvie becomes sour and cold. This may be because she does not know how to relate to her husband or growing children, who have larger lives than she does. Sylvie is judgmental of others and intensely jealous of Izzy, Hugh’s sister. She chides Izzy for being irresponsible and hedonistic, though Sylvie herself has a secret life, hinted at in her attraction to George Glover and the day Ursula spots her at a London hotel.

Sylvie changes more drastically than any other character, as successive losses rob her of her capacity to care for others and enjoy her life. Always somewhat self-absorbed, her intelligence, vivacity, and nurturing impulses are stifled for lack of any other outlet beyond her middle-class home. Hugh thinks of his wife as “beautiful, clever and somewhat contrary” (485), but when Sylvie’s response to young Nancy Shawcross’s death shows that she has come to lack care for others, Hugh asks her where her heart is. After Teddy, her favorite child, dies during World War II, Sylvie dies by taking sleeping pills. Her choice of death runs counter to Ursula’s more frequent attempts to choose and improve her life.

Edward, nicknamed Teddy, is born after Ursula, and she is very fond of him. Teddy is cherished by his family; he represents what is best, and worth protecting, about people and the world. He is loyal, good-natured, thoughtful, and easy to love. Teddy is another version of Hugh: decent, kind, and prone to seeing the best in others.

Teddy’s loving nature is demonstrated by his relationship with Nancy Shawcross, a neighbor to the Todds; he loves her as a girl and never wavers from this enchantment, and Teddy’s reunion with Nancy after the war is in some ways the climactic moment of the book. Teddy does not change as a character, but his loss is significant to his family, and his restoration is the restoration of hope for a future that was otherwise destroyed by war.

Hugh is the patriarch and anchor of the Todd family. He is a kind, decent man with a cheerful personality and warm wit. Hugh’s enthusiasm for life and his care for others make him a person others love and depend on, and he acts several times to rescue others. Hugh is quick to come to Ursula’s assistance when she is in trouble, and she grieves deeply when he dies. Like Teddy, Hugh represents the importance of having close and nurturing human relationships.

Hugh thinks the best of others and has a childlike enthusiasm for new things and small luxuries. A banker, he is the breadwinner and the provider, but he takes true delight in his family. He becomes more sober and deeper as he ages, though his essential nature doesn’t change. He leaves for the Great War thinking of it as an “adventure” but regrets the loss of life he witnesses, even if, in true stoic fashion, he doesn’t speak of the war after. Hugh’s service revolver, issued to him during the war, is the gun Ursula uses when she tries to assassinate Hitler, as if she might use this weapon as an instrument of good and justice fighting a great evil.

Izzy, Hugh’s younger sister, is a foil for Ursula and very often plays a mentoring or protective role. An example of a bon vivant, Izzy is a true hedonist who lives for her own pleasure. She falls in love with a married man at 16 and has an affair with him, even running away to Paris with him while pregnant. Hugh fetches her back, and in most of the timelines she is sent to give birth in Germany, where she gives the baby up for adoption. Thereafter, Izzy lives in London as an example of an independent New Woman, writing columns and living beyond her means as she enjoys luxuries like good dinners, fashionable clothes, and fancy cars. It’s suggested Izzy has several lovers and has perhaps used the services of the clinic where she sends Ursula to terminate her pregnancy.

Izzy experiences success when she writes a successful series of children’s books based on Teddy and his dog, and she also enjoys a brief marriage. Her home is often a shelter and a refuge for Ursula. She coaches Ursula to enjoy her life and make the most of her pleasures. Though Izzy’s life shows that pleasure, success, and joy may be fleeting, Izzy is also a tenacious type who survives; she is like a cat that always lands on its feet.

Maurice is Ursula’s plotting older brother who enjoys the privileges of being upper middle class but whose only real loyalties are to himself and his advancement. He is a robust, rowdy boy who often harasses or hurts his sisters; the narrator notes that “reverence [is] not in Maurice’s own nature” (49). His casual cruelty, as when he throws his sisters’ dolls out their bedroom window, is akin to that of his friend Howard, who in raping Ursula simply takes what he wants and never thinks about how he might hurt others.

Maurice is the only one in the family who does not seem devastated by Teddy’s death. He is a different example of sturdy survivorship; he works for the Home Office during World War II and is knighted after for his service. He takes pride in this as an indication not of his patriotism but his importance. Ursula thinks that his wife, Edwina, is somewhat ignorant and his children are dull. Maurice is evidence that family relationship does not always include friendship or sympathy of spirit. Maurice is practical, unsentimental, and smug. He represents the type of person who values his life by his accomplishments and presumed importance.