Characters

The story “True Love” by Isaac Asimovincludes two active characters, Milton and Joe, which we will help you characterize next. The women and the police are episodic, absent character…

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Joe

Joe is the narrator of the short story, an intelligent computer program (which today we would call AI – Artificial Intelligence). Accordingly, its outer characterization tells us that it is a software that works with data, algorithms, and symbols, and which has been programmed to learn human language: “I am part of the Multivac-complex and am connected with other parts all over the world. I know everything. Almost everything.” (ll. 2-4); “I am Milton's private program. (...) I am his experimental model. He has made me speak better than any other computer can.” (ll. 5-7)

Inner characterization

Joe’s inner characterization is built by using its perspective on the events as a narrator and through its thoughts and actions.

Although Joe is a computer program, it has a number of human traits. Firstly, Joe claims that it knows almost everything (l. 4) and speaks better than other computers (l. 7), suggesting that Joe has some sense of self-pride and self-importance. …

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Milton

Milton is the second main character in the short story, who is depicted from Joe’s perspective. Milton’s outer characterization tells us that he is an unmarried computer programmer who is “nearly forty years old” (l. 13) and who has designed the intelligent computer program named Joe.

Inner characterization

Milton’s inner characterization presents him as a very skilled computer programmer as he was able to design Joe, a computer with the capacity of speech and powerful data-processing: “He understands more about programming than anyone in the world, and I am his experimental model. He has made me speak better than any other computer can.” (ll. 5-7)

However, he is lonely because he “has never found the right woman” (ll. 13-14). The fact that he decides to use Joe to he…