The Clockmaker's Daughter

Elodie Winslow (b. 1987) is one of the protagonists of the novel. She is a young woman of 30. She lives in London and has worked for 10 years in the archives of James Stratton; her occupation mirrors the narrative structure of a novel which delves into the past. Indeed, Elodie is a daydreamer and enjoys stories about the past. The fairy story her mother told her became an escape from her grief after her mother died in a car crash when Elodie was six. Elodie knows that her mother was a famous cellist but she remembers little of her. Elodie is attached to her father, and she felt betrayed when she saw pictures of her mother with the violinist.

Elodie is friendly and kind in nature. Birdie thinks of her as unsure of herself, always ready to retract, highlighting an idea that Morton threads through the novel that truth depends on perspective. Elodie has a close relationship with her landlady, an older woman in her 80s, but she doesn’t exhibit a passionate attachment to Alastair, her fiancé. Through most of her story, Elodie avoids making plans for the wedding and talking to Alastair. Instead, Elodie is immediately drawn to Jack, and so her character forms one of the novel’s romantic subplots. Elodie likes research and finding answers for things, driving the mystery-solving element of the plot. By the end of the novel, she is ready to step out of her mother’s shadow and be her own person.

While Edward (1840-1881) is not a point of view character, he is an important character throughout the novel because of his association with Birchwood and with Birdie. Edward Radcliffe was born the grandson of an earl, Lord Radcliffe. His father died in a carriage accident when the children were young, making him another character who must contend with The Influence of Grief as a child. His mother likes to travel and always supported Edward in his artistic endeavors; she wanted him to become famous and was glad when he became engaged to the wealthy Frances.

Edward was a “wild youth” with “a fierce temper, and a precocious talent” (37). Birdie says that he had a way of drawing people to him; they would follow wherever he led. Leonard sees the same quality and is fascinated by Edward’s charisma: his “energy and openness, his willingness to engage with life and everything it offered” (220). Edward is keenly interested in the supernatural, evidenced by his wish to encounter a ghost when he was 14. He therefore is an important part of the novel’s allusions to Victorian ghost stories. The terror of the experience left a deep impression on his mind, and after he found refuge at Birchwood, he became fascinated with the place.

Edward is easily moved by passion; he is overcome when he sees Birdie for the first time, but he falls in love with her intelligence and kindness as well as her beauty. He hence exhibits the quality of a romantic hero in the novel’s main romantic subplot. He shares himself easily with his sister and the woman he knows as Lily, and he feels jealous when his friend Thurston desires her. Edward never believes that Lily would betray him and he is broken by her disappearance. Much like his unfinished Fairy Queen portrait, Edward’s talent disappears and he roams the Continent, a desolate spirit. His death by drowning is one of several drownings in the novel.

Juliet Wright is a point-of-view character for several chapters in the novel that cover her family’s stay at Birchwood in 1940 and her flashbacks to her honeymoon in the area in 1928. Juliet is a journalist and the mother of three children: Bea (who is Lauren Adler’s mother), Freddy, and Tip. Tip says that she was “[w]onderful. She was smart and funny—acerbic at times ” (353).

Juliet is a devoted mother and does her best to help her children adapt to their new home. She is determined not to let them see her cry. As Elodie’s great-grandmother, she is an example of Morton’s use of parental lineage to thread the events of the novel together. She is loyal to Alan and never marries again after he dies, though she has many friends, including a correspondence with Leonard. Juliet enjoys and is committed to her career, and it upsets her that Alan thinks she might have to give up her job because she is pregnant. Both characters hence allow Morton to address Love of Art and Appreciation of Artistic Accomplishment. Juliet is vigilant about her children’s well-being and gentle with Tip when he speaks of his imaginary friend, Birdie. She would never humiliate or shame her children. She is another resilient woman who will do what she must to survive.

Leonard (b. 1901) is a point-of-view character for a few chapters in the novel set in 1928. Leonard was an idealistic young man who grew up admiring his younger brother, Tom. Leonard went to Oxford to study art but, when World War I began, Tom enlisted, and Leonard did as well. They served in the same unit, so Leonard witnessed Tom’s death. Leonard carries a deep guilt, convinced that he caused Tom’s death because he slept with Kitty, Tom’s fiancée. Leonard thereafter carries around the thruppence found on Tom’s body, and he carries on an affair with Kitty pretending they are in love because otherwise, the betrayal feels too deep. His story shows that The Toll of War continues after war’s end.

After the war, Leonard feels “too heavy for the bubble” of the world, “a man out of time” (214) who doesn’t fit anywhere. He reflects the novel’s structural drifts through time. He drifts for a while until he returns to the study of art and decides to write his dissertation on Edward Radcliffe, whose tragic story interests him as much as his art. Leonard enjoys the peace of Birchwood and relishes the quiet scenery as well as his interviews with Lucy Radcliffe. He writes his theories about Edward’s life in a book which Elodie later reads. Leonard never interacts with Birdie directly, but he dreams of her—vivid dreams that he blames on the opium that he smokes to deal with his shell shock (what we now understand as post-traumatic stress disorder).

Ada Lovegrove (b. 1891) is a point-of-view character for a few chapters in the novel covering the period when Birchwood was a girl’s school. Born in Bombay, India, to British parents, Ada loves her home and her Indian nanny and is sorry to leave them for Miss Radcliffe’s School for Girls in England. Through her, Morton suggests that its colonial past is inextricable from accounts of 19th- and 20th-century Britain. Ada is strong-willed and temperamental, but not cruel. She mostly hides from the girls who taunt her, though she takes the opportunity to torment Charlotte when her sewing duties give her a chance to alter Charlotte’s costume.

Ada is fascinated by Lucy Radcliffe and her interest in natural history, and Lucy is her mentor as well as protector. Ada is soft-hearted about living creatures and risks herself to save a kitten; she is a vital part of Morton’s building of suspense, since it is unclear for several chapters whether she survives. When Ada finds the blue stone, she thinks of it as a talisman. She goes on to have a successful, respected career, and she has children also; Rosalind Wheeler, who employs Jack to find the Radcliffe Blue, is Ada’s granddaughter. Ada brought the Radcliffe Blue to England intending to give it back to Lucy but, when she learned that Lucy didn’t want it, she gave the diamond to Tip, a collector who is interested in pretty stones and other objects.

Jack is only briefly a point-of-view character in the novel, but he is of interest to Birdie. He is a handsome man; a former policeman, now divorced, and hoping that his ex-wife, Sarah, will allow him to spend time with their twin girls. Jack carries lifelong grief and guilt because of his brother’s death. They went rafting in swift water when Ben was 11 and Jack was nine, and Ben drowned after telling rescuers to save Jack first. Ever since then, Jack has felt the need to save people, a quality that Morton uses to drive the detective element of his plot.

Jack takes the job to find the Radcliffe Blue, but he is not obsessed with the stone. Jack can sense Birdie and responds to her thought commands, but he does not see her. Jack is drawn to Elodie when she arrives and helps her find where the photograph of her mother was taken. His character development revolves around the way that he finds connection and understanding with her, both people who have lost someone and are looking for answers.

Lucy Radcliffe (1849-1939) is a point of view character in Part 3 which describes the events of 1862 and their aftermath. Lucy is nine years younger than Edward. She was a precocious child who was close to him and protective of him. Lucy loves to read and explore the world around her, which leads to her interest in natural history and science; Morton assigns several characters an interest in history in order to connect the events of the novel through time. Lucy’s love for her brother and her fascination with Lily lead to confused feelings when she realizes that there is a relationship between them. Lucy acts on the spot to try to save Lily and her actions constitute the climax of the novel’s action. However, when she understands later that she accidentally trapped Lily and caused her death, she is too horrified to say anything. Upon finding the Radcliffe Blue, Lucy is too guilt-stricken to say anything, making her another character who feels guilt under The Influence of Grief.

Later in life, when she inherits Birchwood and learns of Edward’s wish for a school, Lucy has become practical and more hard-hearted, valuing knowledge over sentiment. The reader hence learns of Lucy’s character development in reverse since Morton explores Lucy’s young perspective later in the novel. She deals with Lily’s remains and opens the school. Ada notes her love of the outdoors and her lack of attention to fashion. Lucy has a soft spot for outsiders, like Ada Lovegrove, and she is fiercely loyal to her brother all her life, which makes her prickly when Leonard asks questions. In a final act of love for her brother, Lucy gives his beloved Birchwood to the Art Historians’ Association so that it will be cared for.

Though he is not a point-of-view character in the novel, James Stratton (b. 1844) is the link between Elodie and Birdie. To Elodie, he is the admirable, forward-thinking man who amassed the archives with which she works. She regards him as “a kind man, a good man, committed to improving the lives of the poor and dispossessed” (15). Elodie says that he was “well-connected, articulate, patient, and determined” (363). He married late in life after a number of failed romances, and Elodie always felt “something melancholy lurking beneath the pleasant surface of his personal letters; that he was a seeker for whom true fulfillment remained forever out of reach” (16). This establishes a sense of mystery early on that Morton resolves via the parallel narrative of Birdie and Joe.

Birdie meets Joe when they are both children and he is sickly, with “a wan face and hair the color of bleached straw” (191). Young Joe exhibits an uncanny self-awareness and control. Their friendship is important to Joe as he finds Birdie intelligent, interesting, and alluring; Morton hence uses him to establish elements of Birdie’s characterization that are vital to the ensuing romantic plot with Edward. Elodie thinks that his friendship with Birdie was a formative event in James Stratton’s life and she is one of the reasons that he takes an interest in the causes he does. For Birdie’s sake, James takes Edward’s satchel and sketchbook into his keeping. He stores Birdie’s letter to him in the back of the photograph she sends, providing the material clues for Elodie (and the reader) to solve the mystery.