The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

Hackworth is an artifex (engineer) who joined the neo-Victorians in response to a chaotic early life in North America. He is a deuteragonist (a secondary protagonist) in the novel. His comfortable life changes radically after he appropriates the code he used to build the Primer after being commissioned to do so. His alter ego is the Alchemist (an identity hinted at with Hackworth’s last name), and his double in the Primer is King Coyote, a trickster who relies on data for power.

Hackworth is father to Fiona and husband to Gwen, a proper neo-Victorian woman. He is a talented engineer but is unable to improve his status because he lacks initiative and the ability to apply what he knows to found a company. This is the way to wealth in his phyle. Ironically, his unquestioning acceptance of neo-Victorian values is what stands in his way.

When he steals the code from the Primer, he does so on behalf of his daydreaming daughter, but also out of a sense that he and his family should get some benefit from his creative work. Hackworth shows himself to be naïve and blind to consequences and pragmatic concerns when he is quickly rolled by a gang controlled by Dr. X, the man who compiles the bootleg Primer. From that moment on, Hackworth begins losing more and more of what makes him a neo-Victorian. He first loses his Victorian-styled clothes, but by the time Dr. X is done with him, he loses everything, including reason and control over his body when he descends to join the Drummers.

Despite these experiences, Hackworth still tries to hold onto a semblance of neo-Victorian values, symbolized when he again dons his neo-Victorian clothes to search for the Alchemist. It takes another disorienting immersion in a Drummer-created world for him to gain self-knowledge—specifically, that he is the Alchemist and that he can create a new kind of nanotechnology that can’t be controlled by a powerful few. At the end of the narrative, he embraces his role as the Alchemist, having come to terms with two seemingly incompatible parts of himself: the emotional man who sacrifices a great deal to make a better life for his daughter, and the neo-Victorian who still believes in restraint.

Dr. X is a both a criminal overlord who runs a crime syndicate in the Middle Kingdom and a Mandarin (high official) in the Celestial Kingdom; his different roles in each of these spaces express his constant efforts to find balance in a world disrupted by Western nanotechnology. He finds purpose in manipulating events and other characters to help him create the Seed. His efforts pit him against Hackworth and the neo-Victorian security forces. Stephenson uses this contest to explore what imperialism looks like in the world of the Diamond Age.

Dr. X’s name is a device that Stephenson uses to characterize him. “X” means unknown in English, but his name isn’t actually “X.” He is called that by Western characters because they can’t be bothered to learn to pronounce his name in Mandarin. Overcoming the comfortable arrogance and Eurocentrism of these characters personally motivates Dr. X. His motivations are also bigger than personal offense. His approach to life is governed by Confucianism, which Stephenson paints as a system concerned with creating order and virtue at all levels of society.

Dr. X is a nationalist who loves his own culture. When he wants to—as when he sends the scroll to Judge Fang—he engages deeply with those traditions. He wants China to be for Chinese people, and specifically for people who believe or are at least open to traditional Chinese values. His conversations with Hackworth reveal that he has been struggling with how to get the benefit of Western innovations in nanotechnology without embracing the values. Stephenson portrays him as part of a long tradition of anti-Western, anti-imperialist thinkers who have embraced this struggle.

By the end of the narrative, Dr. X is uncertain about which of his projects to restore China will be successful. He has lost control of the Mouse Army, who have created a synthetic phyle that is neither completely Western nor completely Chinese. The outcome of his struggle for the Seed is still undecided. The unfinished arc of Dr. X’s character reflects uncertainty around the issue of whether people can create new economic and political systems that avoid replicating the imperialism of the past.

Harv is Nell’s older brother. His equivalent in the Primer is most likely Dinosaur, a fierce fighter who is willing to use violence to protect the princess, or Peter Rabbit, an illiterate but tricky figure who uses his wits to survive. In the main narrative, Harv is subject to the same kind of abuse that Nell experiences, but, as an older boy, he has more resources to deal with this abuse. He is resourceful and protective but ultimately limited by his identity as a thete.

Most of Harv’s character development occurs within the walls of the family’s apartment in Enchantment. Harv is illiterate, but he knows just enough to make sure Nell is comfortable and has food to eat. He longs for a better life for both himself and Nell. His theft of handmade cloth and of the Primer are the result of that longing. Harv mostly engages in theft for survival, which explains how he comes to be working for Dr. X and how he robs Hackworth. Harv is primarily motivated by an instinct to survive and to protect Nell, so he doesn’t worry about the ethics of his actions.

The turning point for Harv comes when he and Nell escape the apartment. While Harv’s street smarts offer them some protection, he is out of his element once the two children leave Enchantment. Nell, who has learned how to think critically because of her early work with the Primer, assumes more and more leadership as the children try to survive. Once they arrive at Dovetail, Harv experiences another pivotal moment when he realizes that Nell can move forward free of the stink of Enchantment, but he cannot because he has a criminal record. Leaving Nell without explaining this is the ultimate self-sacrifice. Harv dies of the equivalent of tuberculosis, likely the result of inhaling too much toner (offensive mites). This death shows that he is not able to overcome his early life as a thete. He is thus an important foil to Nell.

Miranda starts out as an aspiring ractor (actor in interactive media) who transforms herself into a maternal figure on behalf of Nell. Her rich voice, which bears the mark of her good early education, makes her an ideal voice for the Primer. She evolves from just voicing the Primer, however. Her persistent presence in Nell’s life through the Primer makes her a maternal figure. Her equivalents in the Primer are Duck or Purple or both.

Stephenson provides scant details about Miranda’s early life. She came from prosperous parents, but some misdeed of her father’s, likely involving pedophilia since Miranda’s mother keeps him aways from Miranda, leads to the breakup of the family and Miranda’s loss of her stable economic status. When Miranda first appears, she fits the archetype of the aspiring starlet. She works hard to get the enhancements she needs to get work and puts up with creepy payers who want her to be in ractives in which she is a sexual object. She sees this as paying her dues.

Her professional aspirations change when she realizes that Nell is living an abusive, unsafe life somewhere. She gives up her potential for professional success by working only with Nell, a sacrifice that other characters describe as maternal. Miranda ultimately ends up being a key piece of the destruction of the Feed, simply because she wants to physically connect with Nell, a union that isn’t possible given the way the network functions.

Miranda is nearly consumed—literally—by her desire to locate Nell. She joins the Drummers, who rely on her role as artist to enhance their ability to make the Seed. Nell rescues Miranda from her role of a mother who sacrifices everything on behalf of her child. The novel ends before the reader can see what happens afterward. Miranda’s arc underscores the significance of human connection in shaping Nell’s identity.

Judge Fang is a magistrate in the Chinese Coastal Republic. His main motivation as a judge is to apply Confucian principles of justice. He proves pivotal in the life of Bud (the father of Harv and Nell), Harv, Nell, and Hackworth. He sentences Bud to death for crime and theft, leaving Tequila without a partner and the two children without a father. He protects both Harv and Nell when it becomes clear that the two are attached to each other and the Primer has put them in danger. His persistent pursuit of Hackworth is important, too, because it allows Dr. X to catch up with Hackworth and force him to work on the Seed. Judge Fang is a pragmatic man who lives in the real world, but he wants to have a life that more closely aligns with his Confucian values. In the end, he becomes the sole judge for the Middle Kingdom and a member of the Celestial Kingdom because he cannot reconcile his sense of justice with the corruption of the Chinese Coastal Republic.

Finkle-McGraw is a self-assured neo-Victorian who pulled himself up by his bootstraps when nanotechnology destroyed the world as he knew it. His early experiences taught him grit and the importance of subversive thinking. He is an equity lord—the equivalent of a duke—because he founded one of the companies that was acquired to create the global corporation that underwrites New Atlantis.

Finkle-McGraw plays a key role in several ways. He commissions Hackworth to develop the Primer with the intention that the Primer be a means of teaching neo-Victorians to be subversive. He forces Hackworth to become a double agent for the neo-Victorians when it becomes clear that the Primer is on the loose. He pulls Hackworth out before the completion of the Seed, foiling Dr. X’s plan to win the battle of cultures between the Celestial Kingdom and New Atlantis. Although Stephenson leaves Finkle-McGraw’s character arc dangling, the destruction of the Feed and New Atlantis implies that he loses the culture war between New Atlantis and the Celestial Kingdom.

Constable Moore is a veteran of the nanotech wars that came before the establishment of the Common Economic Protocol. By the time Nell encounters him in Dovetail, he is a kind but traumatized man regularly exposed to violence in his work as a security contractor. His skin, riddled with scars from a nanotechnological weapon, reflects this trauma. He is one of the few paternal figures in Nell’s life, but he isn’t consistently available emotionally because of his trauma. He is a guide for Nell, teaching her the importance of flexible thinking and of being able to apply knowledge effectively in real situations. He creates physical safety for Nell and teaches her the importance of working on psychological safety, which is ironic since he is not able to achieve the same for himself.

Miss Matheson is the director and owner of the Three Graces, a finishing school designed to transform girls into proper neo-Victorian ladies. She is the only formal teacher present in the narrative, and while she is a round character, she doesn’t change much over the narrative. She represents the conservative nature of neo-Victorians. When Nell, Elizabeth, and Fiona rebel against her efforts to intimidate them, she tells them that she knows some of their education is worthless and Eurocentric. Her deathbed advice to Nell shows that she is either pragmatic or cynical about the intrinsic worth of neo-Victorian education. For her, education is a means to an end: the indoctrination of children with neo-Victorian values.

Carl Hollywood is an artist and manager of the Theatre Parnasse. His sympathy for Miranda gets him involved in the struggle between the Feed and the Seed. He is most important as a support for Miranda. He introduces her to Mr. Beck and Mr. Oda, CryptNet investors who eventually convince Miranda to work with the Drummers on the Seed. He is also one of the few figures to recognize that Hackworth is the Alchemist and to understand the implications of the Seed for society and the nanotech economy. At the end of the novel, Carl Hollywood is a powerful figure who knows how to break the Feed. His name, “Hollywood,” is a reference to his identity as an artist and an actor. Like many agile agents in the new world, he relies on both his knowledge of programming and his creativity to be successful. 

Fiona is the daughter of John and Gwen Hackworth. She is Hackworth’s motivation for creating the first bootleg Primer. When her father leaves for 10 years, she retreats into the Primer to listen to the stories he tells; her years of interacting with him in the Primer, which includes her father’s many experiences among the Drummers, makes her a misfit who can’t deal with the regimented life at Miss Matheson’s or at home. She comes into her own when she joins Dramatis Personae, a front for the Drummer-CryptNet collaboration. Like Elizabeth Finkle-McGraw and Nell, the education she receives in the Primer leads her to subvert neo-Victorian gender norms.

Colonel Napier is a member of the neo-Victorian armed forces and security services. He is responsible for tracking down Hackworth when he goes rogue and forcing Hackworth to become a double agent. To all appearances, he is the embodiment of neo-Victorian rationality, self-discipline, and conservative mores. Like many characters, however, he leads a double life. He is a regular customer at Madame Ping’s, where he most enjoys being in a submissive role. Nell learns by watching him that neo-Victorians do have emotions, but they suppress them when they need to perform.

The Fists are a Chinese nationalist phyle/army that takes their name from the group that helped foment the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, when China last rebelled against British imperial rule. In the novel, they destroy the Western feeds in Shanghai and collaborate with Dr. X and the Drummers to build the Seed. They change the historical and cultural setting around the major characters by destroying the society built by outsiders. They evolve in the narrative when they go from using brute force to using nanotechnological weapons to drive out Westerners. Like the Mouse Army, however, they are presented as an undifferentiated mass that represents important parts of Chinese culture and politics.

In both the main narrative and the Primer narrative, the Mouse Army comprises Chinese girls. In the main narrative, the mice are Han girls who have been left to die in the Chinese interior. The rescued girls become the responsibility of Dr. X and Judge Fang. Dr. X engages in his own educational experiment by using noninteractive Primers to teach Chinese values to the quarter of a million girls he rescues. This experiment fails, in his eyes, because the girls are loyal only to each other. In the Primer, the girls are mice under an enchantment. Princess Nell frees them, acquiring an army that makes her a queen. For Dr. X, the Mouse Army symbolizes the harmful influence of Western technology. For Hackworth, the Mouse Army is the synthesis of neo-Victorian and Chinese values. They are free young women, albeit ones whose political power he finds a little frightening.

Gwen is the attractive, perfect neo-Victorian wife who thinks she has made a conventional choice in marrying John Hackworth. She is a relatively flat character who is most present when she frets over the impact of the Primers on the three girls who own them and when she tries to prevent Fiona from seeing her father after John emerges from the Drummer society. She embodies traditional neo-Victorian gender norms.

Elizabeth is the impetuous, privileged granddaughter of Lord Finkle-McGraw. Her grandfather designs the Primer because he hopes the education she receives from it will give her the grit to be a founder like him. It doesn’t. She instead embraces a subversive lifestyle by joining CryptNet to help create the Seed. She represents the ultimate failure of Finkle-McGraw’s educational experiment in making a neo-Victorian who both respects authority and is subversive.

Tequila is the neglectful mother of Harv and Nell. Saddled with Nell after a birth-control failure, Tequila isn’t interested in being an active parent. She works as a maid and mostly ignores her children. She also selects partners who abuse both her and her children; her neglect destroys Nell’s sense of psychological safety. Tequila is a stereotype of the ineffective mother who belongs to the thete underclass.

Tequila has a rotating cast of boyfriends, most of whom abuse her children. With the exception of Brad, a blacksmith in Dovetail, these men treat her children as nuisances at least and as prey at worst, as when Mark sexually abuses Nell. These men are stereotypes of men and fathers in the thete underclass.

Madame Ping owns the sex-work business where Nell finds employment after leaving Dovetail. Madame Ping is a success because she understands that her neo-Victorian customers, powerful in their daily lives, want to be submissive when engaged in sexual play; her non-neo-Victorian customers want to feel powerful by playing as neo-Victorians. She helps Nell understand that even technology cannot obscure the importance of connection.