Characters
The most important characters in the short story “Sea Story” by A. S. Byatt are Harold and Laura. The two characters are symbolic; Harold represents the inland and abstract thought while Laura represents the sea and connection with nature.…
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Harold
Harold is a developing and dynamic character. He is the one who pushes the action further (he looks for Laura at the pub, sends her letters and then the message in a bottle) and changes as a result of the action (his attitude towards the sea shifts during the course of the story, from respecting it poetically to polluting it to satisfy his own feelings to collecting rubbish from its shores as an old man).
Outer characterisation
From Harold’s outer characterisation, we find out that he was born in a fishing town called Filey in Yorkshire, England. His father was an oceanographer and her mother a teacher and a poet. When he grows up he pursues poetry studies at Oxford, then he eventually marries another poet, fathers three daughters, and returns to Filey: “His father was an oceanographer, the son of an oceanographer who studied the deep currents of the North Sea. His mother taught English at a high school and wrote fierce little poems about waves and weather.” (ll. 6-8); “Harold married a fellow poet, had three daughters whom he loved, strode along Filey Beach collecting plastic bags and debris, retired and died.” (ll.…
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Laura
Laura represents the sea and connection with nature in the short story. She is a flat character and is mostly presented from Harold’s perspective, through his love-struck eyes.
Outer characterisation
Her outer characterisation informs us that she is a marine biology graduate who is on holiday and subsequently takes a job in the Caribbean “studying the life-cycle of eels” (ll. 63-64). Much of her outer characterisation is focused on her physical appearance which makes her resemble a sea creature: “…a pale woman in a sleek black wetsui…
