The Mandarins

Main Characters and Their Development

• Anne Dubreuilh—a woman torn between duty and passion, between the longing for freedom and the fear of loneliness; her inner struggles and search for meaning mirror the postwar era, and her journey to self-awareness passes through pain, love, and disappointment.
• Henri Perron—a writer and intellectual whose conscience and ideals clash with the harsh reality of political change; his development is a tragic path from certainty to doubt, from faith in collective action to agonizing solitude and the necessity of personal choice.
• Nadine Dubreuilh—a young woman seeking her own voice among those of the older generation; her coming of age is a story of liberation from parental shadows, the awakening of feelings, and the first steps toward independence, filled with anxiety and hope.
• Robert Dubreuilh—a doctor for whom duty and responsibility are anchors in the stormy sea of change; his character is revealed through moral dilemmas, and his growth comes with the gradual realization of the complexity of human destinies and the impossibility of simple solutions.
• A vibrant palette of secondary characters—friends, colleagues, lovers—complements and shades the inner dramas of the main protagonists, turning their personal stories into a polyphonic meditation on time, love, loyalty, and betrayal.