Passing

Clare Kendry is an African-American woman who, due to her white grandfather, has a pale complexion and blond hair. In fact, Hugh Wentworth comments that Clare looks like she has stepped out of a fairytale. Because of her complexion, Clare can pass for white, and her decision to do so leads her to live a double life. Neither her husband nor her daughter knows that she is actually African-American, and it is revealed that her husband hates black people. Clare allows herself to play the dangerous game of passing because John provides her with wealth and status. Her father died when she was young, and she faced poverty while growing up. She moved in with two white aunts who treated her as inferior because of her skin color. She eventually ran away and married John Bellew. As a white woman married to a white man, Clare never wants for anything again.

However, Clare becomes nostalgic for her past life, and when she meets Irene at the Drayton Hotel, the two strike up their old friendship. Though Irene is afraid that Clare’s secret might come out, Clare brushes the danger off and begins spending a lot of time with the Redfields. It is revealed that Clare is having an affair with Irene’s husband, Brian. Clare’s life ends tragically soon after Irene learns of the affair, and when Clare’s husband learns that she is passing.

Gertrude Martin is an old friend of Irene and Clare’s who grew up with them in Chicago. Like her two friends, Gertrude has a pale complexion but rather than passing for white as thoroughly as Clare does, she marries a man who knows and accepts the fact that she is black. Though her husband thinks that Gertrude should embrace her identity, Gertrude is mortified at the thought of having a “dark” child, as she calls it. Gertrude would like for people to think she is white. Though she and Irene do not get along, they both agree that Clare is playing a dangerous game by remaining married to a racist.

John Bellew is Clare Kendry’s husband. He is a wealthy man who works in international business. Though he loves Clare, he has no idea that she is African-American. This fact is made even more startling because John is a staunch racist. He exclaims vocally and passionately that he hates black people. Though he does not know the truth of his wife’s identity, he nicknames her “Nig” as a joke because she has dark skin for a white woman, a pet name that infuriates Irene. John admits that, though he hates black people, he has never actually met a black person. Irene is tempted to tell John his wife’s secret several times over the course of the novel, but she eventually decides that John is too much of a threat to reveal the truth. It is not until the end of the novel that John discovers his wife is African-American. His hateful attitude toward African-Americans gives credence to the possibility that he is responsible for his wife’s death. 

Brian Redfield is Irene's husband and the father of her children. Unlike Irene, Brian is dark-skinned and cannot pass for white. Though he is a successful doctor, Brian speaks constantly of disliking sick people. It is revealed that he despises his job and would quit if it was not for Irene’s insistence that he keep at it. Irene is also the one who convinced him to go into the field of medicine in the first place. Brian dreams of relocating his family to Brazil. He is fed up with the racism and violence African-Americans face in America, and wants to make a fresh start in Brazil. Irene, however, is staunchly against this plan of his. Brian seems to blame Irene for his unhappiness, especially her refusal to move. It is suggested that this misunderstanding between the two is the catalyst for Brian’s affair with Clare Kendry.