The Speaker

As is usually the case with poetry, the principal character is the speaker. The speaker narrates the poem from their own first-person perspective. The events of the poem are happening to the speaker – it is his own troubled love affair that he speaks about – but he is not a very developed character. His role is primarily to recount how the different elements within the poem interact.

The Beloved

Even more slightly sketched is the figure of the speaker's romantic interest. She is mentioned only as the other half of their doomed love affair. Nothing about her character is spelled out with any detail in the poem; she is instead an example of love interrupted by fate.

Fate

In contrast to the human characters, the symbol of Fate is characterized in detail. Fate is depicted as jealous and fearful, worried about losing her power, and devoted to maintaining...