Year of Wonders: Character Profiles
These are the paragraphs created by the class. Keep them amongst your notes but add to them or alter them as you see the characters and their role in the story.
Josiah Bont
Josiah Bont, the protagonist’s father, ‘was a man of few words, and those mostly curses’, as well as vile and physically and psychologically violent towards his wife, ‘she had worn the helmet a night and a day… [Josiah] yanking hard on the chain so that the iron sliced her tongue’, and his daughter, ‘see? I said you’d learn at me knee, and you’ll damn well do as I tell ye. Someone fetch me a branks to muzzle this scold!’ Abusive, ‘He was a quick man, ever quick with a blow’, and a drunkard ‘he would end everyday there [Miner’s Tavern], drinking until he could barely stagger home’ but although ‘he loved pot, the pot did not love him, and made of him a sour and menacing creature’. He dies from a storm after his misfortunate forgotten retrieval from the punishment of having knives hammered through his hands into mine stowes.
Aphra
The character Aphra in the novel by year of wonders written by Geraldine Brooks is portrayed as mean, wild and cunning just like Josiah her husband. Anna there step daughter ‘was always a pair of hands before I [she] was a person. Aphra was very much a bystander in Anna’s life, especially when it came to Josiah beating her, Aphra’s only remark was when he struck her on the face ‘ for we’ll never marry her off’ only thinking of herself and not Anna’s wellbeing. Perhaps the only good thing Aphra ever done for Anna was encourage her marriage to Sam Frith ‘Better she be bedded early to Frith than bedded untimely by some youth’ This pushed Anna away. Although Aphra was a very proud woman, she was jealous of the bonds Anna had with members of the community such as Elinor ‘You’re not my step daughter now. Oh no. You’re too fine for the likes o’ me [elinor]’. ‘Out of our negligence and her loneliness came rage. Much rage and some madness…’ The grief from the loss
Josiah Bont
Josiah Bont, the protagonist’s father, ‘was a man of few words, and those mostly curses’, as well as vile and physically and psychologically violent towards his wife, ‘she had worn the helmet a night and a day… [Josiah] yanking hard on the chain so that the iron sliced her tongue’, and his daughter, ‘see? I said you’d learn at me knee, and you’ll damn well do as I tell ye. Someone fetch me a branks to muzzle this scold!’ Abusive, ‘He was a quick man, ever quick with a blow’, and a drunkard ‘he would end everyday there [Miner’s Tavern], drinking until he could barely stagger home’ but although ‘he loved pot, the pot did not love him, and made of him a sour and menacing creature’. He dies from a storm after his misfortunate forgotten retrieval from the punishment of having knives hammered through his hands into mine stowes.
Aphra
The character Aphra in the novel by year of wonders written by Geraldine Brooks is portrayed as mean, wild and cunning just like Josiah her husband. Anna there step daughter ‘was always a pair of hands before I [she] was a person. Aphra was very much a bystander in Anna’s life, especially when it came to Josiah beating her, Aphra’s only remark was when he struck her on the face ‘ for we’ll never marry her off’ only thinking of herself and not Anna’s wellbeing. Perhaps the only good thing Aphra ever done for Anna was encourage her marriage to Sam Frith ‘Better she be bedded early to Frith than bedded untimely by some youth’ This pushed Anna away. Although Aphra was a very proud woman, she was jealous of the bonds Anna had with members of the community such as Elinor ‘You’re not my step daughter now. Oh no. You’re too fine for the likes o’ me [elinor]’. ‘Out of our negligence and her loneliness came rage. Much rage and some madness…’ The grief from the loss