Gaudy Night

Wimsey is a 45-year-old aristocrat who amuses himself by solving mysteries as an amateur detective when he isn’t working on special assignment for the Foreign Office. His brilliant analytical skills have brought him great success in his chosen field. After meeting Harriet during her murder trial, he falls instantly in love with her because he considers her to be his intellectual equal. Despite Harriet’s repeated rejection of his proposals, he still has hopes of marrying her. Just as Harriet grows as a person during the poison-pen investigation, Wimsey comes to learn something about his own motives and becomes a humbler and wiser man in the process. After this transformation, he becomes an acceptable suitor to Harriet. 

Miss de Vine is a middle-aged scholar who is completed devoted to the life of the mind. Harriet says of her, “Here was a fighter, indeed; but one to whom the quadrangle of Shrewsbury was a native and proper arena: a soldier knowing no personal loyalties, whose sole allegiance was to the fact” (12). De Vine’s devotion to truth causes her to expose a colleague, Arthur Robinson, for theft. This ruins his career and invites the wrath of his widow, Annie. De Vine only belatedly realizes that truth ought to be tempered with mercy. 

Annie is a scout at Shrewsbury, but she is also the enraged widow of failed academic, Arthur Robinson. Her role as housekeeper allows her free access to all parts of the college. At the end of the novel, she is revealed to be the culprit behind all the vicious attacks aimed at the female scholars. A traditionalist, Annie believes that a woman’s role is to take care of her husband and children. She blames intellectual women like Miss de Vine for ruining her husband’s life and depriving her family of its breadwinner. She hides her emotional imbalance well. After being caught, she feels no remorse for her crimes and believes she was only defending her family. 

The practical and down-to-earth Dean (Miss Letitia Martin), is Harriet’s greatest ally among the senior staff. She asks Harriet to investigate the poison-pen letters plaguing the college. The Warden (Dr. Margaret Baring), a more impressive figure than the Dean, wishes to prevent any scandal from attaching to the college. While she encourages Harriet’s private investigation, she resists bringing in any outside sources who might spread rumors.

Miss Hillyard is a History tutor who takes a dim view of women who succumb to matrimony and expect preferential treatment because they fulfill their “animal functions” (288) by giving birth. She accuses Harriet of conducting an affair with Wimsey and debasing the university. Miss Lydgate, the Sub-Warden of the college, is a kindhearted and innocent scholar who manages to make every subject sound dull. Her manuscript, English Prosody, is vandalized by the Poison-Pen.