Characterization of Mary

Mary is the main character in the short story “Early Autumn” by Langston Hughes. She currently lives in New York, on Central Park West, although she once lived in Ohio, where she met Bill. She is married to a man “she thought she loved” and has three children. Her youngest son is named Bill, after her former boyfriend. She works in the bursar’s office at Columbia University.

Mary is older than Bill and is “desperately reaching back into the past”. The text does not specify why Mary and Bill ended their relationship, but considering the mention of Bill being “bitter about women”, it could be t...