The two main characters in The Lovers are among Farmer's most memorable creations. Hal Yarrow is completely convincing as one of Farmer's ordinary men, who, in contrast with a superhero like Sir Richard Burton of the Riverworld series, are the complete slaves of their inner neuroses and pressures.

Indeed, Hal, like Lane in "My Sister's Brother" (1960), is a typical male character in Farmer's early fiction: A victim of his puritanical conditioning, he is eager to please his superiors, yet, in his own halting way, is also searching for an alternative to his repression. Once free of the Sturch, this timid little man who has never seen his own wife naked is gradually "born again" under the loving influence of Jeannette.

The completely selfless Jeannette will annoy today's feminists, but Farmer would probably argue that she, too, is flawed, and like Hal, must learn to discover her inner resources...