A Journal of the Plague Year

Main Characters and Their Development

• The main character, the narrator known only by the initials H.F., appears not only as an attentive chronicler of disaster but also as a man whose soul undergoes a complex inner evolution. His observations are tinged with compassion and anxiety, and his reflections on the fate of his fellow citizens become ever more profound as the plague engulfs London. H.F. balances between fear and duty, between the desire to escape and the necessity to remain a witness to tragedy, which lends his character a special humanity and depth. Around him pass the figures of city dwellers—street vendors, doctors, priests, ordinary townspeople—each contributing their own note to the chorus of fear, hope, and despair. These characters, though often nameless, embody a collective portrait of a society on the brink of destruction, and their actions and reactions serve as a mirror for the narrator’s own inner world.