The Goldfinch

Boris is Theo’s best friend in Las Vegas. He comes across as a cosmopolitan, belonging to many cultures, and Theo says that “[t]hough he spoke English fluently enough, with a strong Australian accent, there was also a dark, slurry undercurrent of something else: a whiff of Count Dracula, or maybe it was a KGB agent” (237). Boris forms an immediate, intense relationship with Theo and acts as Theo’s primary source of love and support while in Las Vegas.

Though Boris gives Theo love, he also represents tendencies toward chaos and violence. Boris is a “budding alcoholic” and is instrumental in ushering Theo into the world of illegal substances and distancing oneself from reality (299). Boris is also violent, and the two gets into serious physical altercations. Despite all this Theo confesses his love for Boris and accepts “the whole impulsive mess of him: gloomy, reckless, hot-tempered, appallingly thoughtless” (299). Boris steals The Goldfinch from Theo, arguably the most important object in Theo’s life, then attempts to reunite Theo with it later in adulthood. In this way, Boris both gives and takes from Theo, always asserting that sometimes bad things have to happen in order to achieve good results.

Pippa is the younger half-sister of Welty, an antique shop owner, and Theo’s love interest. After seeing her at the Met before the bomb, Theo becomes infatuated with her, and this infatuation continues as Theo grows older. Pippa becomes like a work of art for Theo. She is beautiful and bright, a person over whom Theo fixates, almost as an object of fetish:“Everything about her was a snowstorm of fascination, from the antique valentines and embroidered Chinese coats she collected to her tiny scented bottles from Neal’s Yard Remedies” (463). For most of the novel, Theo believes that “[w]e belonged together; there was a dream rightness and magic to it, inarguable” (463). Despite this, Theo eventually realizes that they would not be right for each other, and Pippa is like “sublimity and disaster, the morphine lollipop I’d chased for all those years” (762). He must avoid the chaos that goes along with Pippa.

Hobie is the part owner of Hobart and Blackwell, an antiques shops. He spends his time in his workshop restoring pieces of furniture: “In blameless quiet, he buried himself in his work, steam-bending veneers or hand-threading table legs with a chisel, and his happy absorption floated up from the workshop and diffused through the house” (395). After Audrey’s death, he becomes a type of replacement parent for Theo, who notes that “[t]his place is good, this person is safe, I can trust him, nobody will hurt me” (159). Through his unconditional love, Hobie represents order and stability for Theo. 

Larry is Theo’s alcoholic father. He abandons Audrey and Theo a few months before Audrey’s death to go to Las Vegas. Theo has never been that close to him, and he says that “we’d never liked him much, and my mother and I were generally much happier without him” (10). In Theo’s life, Larry is another agent of chaos. He very charming and manipulative, having the ability to get people to do what he wants: “It never failed to amaze me how my dad could charm strangers and reel them in” (284). Additionally, he is very unpredictable, and a lot of this has to do with his substance abuse. Larry drinks while living with Audrey and turns to drugs in Las Vegas. Just when Theo is starting to trust him, Larry betrays him by trying to get money from him and subsequently physically abusing him. Larry represents yet another figure who Theo should have been able to trust but cannot. 

Audrey is Theo’s mother. Though she is killed by a bomb in the first chapter, her memory is present throughout the novel. To Theo, Audrey represents unconditional love and a sense of security, and her death devastates him. In life, Audrey has a heightened, charismatic presence: “Everything came alive in her company; she cast a charmed theatrical light about her so that to see anything through her eyes was to see it in brighter colors than ordinary” (7). This quote also points to the way in which Theo perceives Audrey as a work of art. She is beautiful and allows the people around her to experience a sense of heightened reality, the feeling one might experience when looking at a work of art. Throughout the novel, Theo attempts to fill the void created by her death.

Andy is the friend Theo goes to live after Audrey’s death. He is maladjusted, someone who “had always been a chronically picked-upon kid: scrawny, twitchy, lactose intolerant” (85). He provides Theo with support and comfort after his mother’s death. As a young adult, he dies in a boating accident along with his father.

Mrs. Barbour is Andy’s mother, who takes Theo in after Audrey’s death. She is a wealthy socialite who is interested in collecting art and creating beauty in her home and person: “Somehow even in her sandals and simple cotton dress she still managed to give the impression of being immaculately turned out” (215). Much like the other women in the novel, Mrs. Barbour is also depicted as a work of art, though one who is less accessible. After her son’s and husband’s deaths, Mrs. Barbour retreats into her home and loses some of her sheen.

Kitsey is Andy’s younger sister and eventually Theo’s fiancée. Theo notes that “Kitsey was never tired; Kitsey was never unhappy. She was appealing, enthusiastic, affectionate” (514). She acts as an antithesis to Pippa’s vibrancy and intensity. While engaged to Theo, Kitsey continues seeing Tom Cable, a former classmate of Theo’s

Xandra is a woman in her forties and Larry’s girlfriend. Theo describes her as “a strange woman, tan and very fit-looking: flat grey eyes, lined coppery skin, and teeth that went in, with a split between them” (184). She works at a restaurant and frequently uses drugs.