Characters

The main character in the short story “The World Ending in Fire” by Jan Carson is the unnamed narrator. She is a woman from East Belfast looking back at a period in her childhood from when she was eight to when she was ten. We do not know a lot about the narrator as the focus of the story is not on her, but on her friend Lyndsey and Lyndsey’s mother, Mrs Agnew. There are, however, hints that the events happening with Mrs Agnew and Lyndsey affect the narrator deeply, although she does not know how to address them.

Other characters that are important to the story, then, are Lyndsey and her mother, Mrs Agnew. Lyndsey’s mother’s mental breakdown has a profound effect on her life. The relationship between the various characters is also explored in the story. 

You can read a full characterization of the narrator and of Lyndsey and her mother, as well an analysis of their relationship in the following pages.