Characters

The most important character in the short story “Mrs Vadnie Marlene Sevlon” by Jackie Kay is Vadnie Marlene Sevlon, the protagonist. Her husband and her daughters are fictive, part of the woman’s imagination. Other secondary or absent characters are only relevant for the way Vadnie relates to them.

Vadnie Marlene Sevlon

The main character of the story, whose thoughts and perspective the narration follows is Mrs Vadnie Marlene Sevlon. The woman’s characterisation is constructed both directly (self-characterisation) and indirectly through her thoughts and actions.

Outer characterisation

Vadnie’s outer characterisation presents her as a Jamaican woman of “fifty-two” (l. 27) who lives in England. She has three other sisters living in Jamaica (ll. 29-30), and she works as a cleaning lady in a home for the elderly. Vadnie is unmarried, but she has been pretending that she is for the past 20 years: “And Vadnie answered Mrs. That was twenty years ago, when she was thirty, and was still thinking that the right man might come along. He never did but Vadnie kept the Mrs anyway.” (ll. 51-53)

Inner characterisation

The woman’s inner characterisation conveys a portrait of a lonely, middle-aged person. First, we find out Vadnie is in the habit of talking to herself, as a way of feeling less lonely:

Vadnie Marlene Sevlon often said her own name, her whole name, to herself when she was alone. Perhaps because it reminded her of back home (...) or maybe because it made her feel less lonely or maybe even just to remind herself of who she was. (ll. 10-13)

From the beginning and throughout the whole narrative, Vadnie comes across as a reflective, pensive person. She likes to question things and reflect on life and death. For instance, Vadnie believes people who have money have more freedom: “Only people with money have choice; only rich people can take their pick; everyone else must stumble from pillar to post, from hope to promise, and believe in luck and God…” (ll. 7-9)

Vadnie has a strange pastime; she enjoys going to a cemetery and contemplate her own death: “…she would sit on a bench and contemplate the differences between the living and the dead. She liked to read the gravestones and imagine the lives…” (ll. 18-19); “Intense contemplation! Vadnie sometimes envisaged her own headstone…” (l. 24)

As the woman walks the streets of the city, it becomes clearer that Vadnie is frustrated by her low finances. She would like to buy things, but she cannot afford them, because, as she repeats, they “cost a small fortune” (l. 41).

Vadnie reflects on her life choices and thinks about how different her life would have been if she lived in New York instead of London.

Then, we find out that Vadnie has been calling herself Mrs for more than 20 years. She fabricated a husband and three daughters and told anyone who would listen about them. In her imagination, her husband has only positive qu...