The Prince of Tides characters

Appears from the start

A former teacher and football coach from South Carolina, now unemployed and uncertain of his place in his own family. Tom uses humor and anger to keep painful memories at a distance. After his twin sister's latest suicide attempt, he travels to New York to help her psychiatrist understand the Wingo family's past.

Appears from the start

Tom's twin sister, a gifted poet living in New York. Savannah has attempted suicide and is hospitalized at the start of the novel. Her illness and writing are bound to memories she and Tom have never been able to discuss openly.

Appears from the start

The eldest of the three Wingo children. Luke is remembered by Tom as protective, physically courageous, and deeply attached to the South Carolina landscape where they grew up. His absence weighs heavily on both surviving twins.

Appears from the start

Tom, Savannah, and Luke's mother. Lila is beautiful, ambitious, and fiercely concerned with appearances. She calls Tom after Savannah's suicide attempt but resists any account of the family that threatens the life story she has constructed for herself.

Appears from the start

Tom's wife and the mother of their three daughters. Sallie is a physician whose career has advanced while Tom's has stalled. Their marriage is in crisis, and she has told Tom that she is involved with another man.

Also known as Lowenstein

First appears in chapter 2

Savannah's New York psychiatrist. Susan is intelligent, direct, and determined to break through the Wingo family's secrecy. She asks Tom to serve as his sister's memory while Savannah is unable to explain the experiences behind her crisis.

First appears in chapter 3

The father of Tom, Savannah, and Luke, a shrimper whose business dreams repeatedly fail. Henry is volatile, controlling, and violent at home, forcing his children to become alert to his moods while the family publicly conceals his abuse.

First appears in chapter 6

Susan's teenage son, a sensitive and accomplished violin student with little interest in his father's ideals of masculinity. Bullied by schoolmates and belittled at home, Bernard becomes Tom's football pupil during Tom's stay in New York.

First appears in chapter 8

Susan's husband, a celebrated concert violinist. Herbert is demanding toward Bernard and accustomed to organizing family life around his own career. His long absences and dismissive treatment of his son strain the Woodruff household.

First appears in chapter 4

Tom's eccentric paternal grandmother. Tolitha offers the Wingo children affection, stories, and an example of life unconstrained by Lila's concern for respectability. Her unconventional history is part of the family world Tom reconstructs for Susan.