The Vegetarian characters

Appears from the start

A married woman in Seoul whose disturbing dreams lead her to remove all meat from the household and refuse to eat it. Her quiet decision becomes a conflict over control when her husband and relatives treat obedience as more important than her distress. At a coercive family meal, she resists her father's violence and seriously cuts her own wrist.

Appears from the start

Yeong-hye's husband and the narrator of the first part. He chose her because he expected an undemanding, conventional marriage and is more troubled by the social inconvenience of her vegetarianism than by the nightmares and declining health behind it. He seeks help from her family when he can no longer make her comply.

Appears from the start

Yeong-hye's older sister, a capable woman who runs a cosmetics shop while supporting her own household. At the family confrontation she is one of the few people to respond practically to Yeong-hye's injury, although she has not yet challenged the family's assumptions about what her sister should endure.

Appears from the start

Yeong-hye's authoritarian father, a decorated veteran who expects unquestioned obedience from his adult children. Angered by her refusal to eat meat, he strikes her and tries to force food into her mouth, turning a family attempt at persuasion into violence.

Appears from the start

Yeong-hye and In-hye's mother. She prepares an array of meat dishes in the hope of ending Yeong-hye's refusal to eat them and supports her husband's authority during the disastrous family gathering.

First appears in chapter 2

In-hye's husband, an unsuccessful video artist who becomes fixated on the idea of filming Yeong-hye's body covered in painted flowers. He recruits her for the project, crosses professional and family boundaries, and eventually films himself having sex with her. His pursuit of the image destroys his marriage and helps precipitate Yeong-hye's psychiatric confinement.

First appears in chapter 2

The young son of In-hye and the video artist. His ordinary needs tie In-hye to daily life as the adults around him withdraw, break down, or disappear from the household.

First appears in chapter 2

A dancer who agrees to have flowers painted on his body and to appear with Yeong-hye in the video artist's planned work. He withdraws when the filming becomes explicitly sexual, marking a boundary that the artist later chooses to cross himself.

First appears in chapter 3

A doctor responsible for Yeong-hye during the severe stage of her psychiatric hospitalization. Faced with her persistent refusal of food and imminent physical danger, he authorizes restraint and force-feeding, treating survival as the overriding concern despite her resistance and In-hye's alarm.