Characterisation of Richard

The main characters in the short story “Don’t You Hate Having Two Heads?” by Christine Poulson are Richard and Jessica. Richard’s wife Sarah is a secondary character and functions as an element that clears the air and lets readers into Richard’s plan of picking up women as part of his research for his new book. In this study guide, we will focus on Richard and Jessica, as they represent the most important and intriguing characters in the story.

The protagonist of the story, Richard, is a man in his forties (p. 15, l. 27).

Outer characterisation

His outer characterisation indicates that he looks “attractive” (p. 15, l. 17) and that he has “greying” (p. 15, l. 26) beard and hair, both “worn short” (p. 15, ll. 25-26). An important feature of the man is that his height is below average, which will prove to be a very important clue in the end. The ending of the story reveals that Richard is married to a woman named Sarah and that he has two children, a son named Marcus (p. 16, l. 27) and a daughter named Emily (p. 16, l. 27). Richard is also a writer who has gained quite a lot of fame and money through his last published novel. Finally, the man originates from the East Midlands (p. 17, l. 35) and travelled to Venice to find research material for his new book.

Inner characterisation

The man’s inner characterisation is constructed with the help of the red herring technique, which involves offering misleading information about a character or situation. Throughout the story, the reader is led to believe that Richard is hiding something dangerous and that Jessica is a potential victim.

First, Richard is depicted admiring a sculpture in the Guggenheim Museum in Venice and slowly realising that it is grotesque and frightening:

He looked at the title: Woman with her Throat Cut by Alberto Giacometti. He looked again at the sculpture. A little way down the neck was a second notch. This bloodless bronze was somehow more terrible than the goriest painting could have been. (p. 11, ll. 11-15)

Soon, his attention is caught by the sight of a beautiful tall woman; from here on, it becomes clear that Richard is hiding something, as he takes off his wedding ring (p. 11, l. 27), puts it in his pocket and approaches the woman, feeling “a little thrill of excitement and apprehension” (p. 12, l. 5). As the two of them interact, Richard begins to feel happy that the woman is in her thirties and not too young and he is sure that they will meet again: “The encounter was over. At least for now.” (p. 12, l. 21)

After ten minutes, Richard begins to look for the woman in the museum, pretending to examine different paintings. He seems quite desperate, and he blames himself for not making a move when he had the chance. His inner struggle makes readers believe that Richard is, in fact, a murderer in search of a victim:

She had gone and he had missed his chance. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why hadn’t he made a move earlier? It was a bloody nuisance just when he had psyched himself up to it. He had ...

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