Characters

The main character of Raymond Carver’s short story “The Idea” is an unnamed narrator. The story revolves around her and her attitude towards her neighbor who is a voyeur. She is not a developing character since her way of acting and thinking remain the same throughout the story.

Vern, the neighbor, and the woman in the window are secondary characters and are also not developing in the short story.

Vern is the narrator's partner. He is more open-minded than the narrator when it comes to intimacy and sexuality. Vern seems to have a more diverse knowledge about sexual practices, since he is the one who first understands that their neighbor is a voyeur and explains it to the narrator.

You can read characterizations of the narrator and Vern in the next pages.