Seven Guitars

Louise is in her mid-forties and owns the apartment building behind in which the play takes place, but she willingly shares her space without exerting authority. She is strong and obstinate, dispensing wisdom and pragmatism to the other characters. Louise earned her skepticism of love and men when her husband left her after twelve years of marriage and tries to warn Vera that Floyd will only hurt her again. She doesn’t put stock in what she can’t see and is the first to dismiss illusions of angels and faith healing. Louise is stubborn, but she is not hard-hearted. She claims that her relationship with Hedley isn’t anything close to love, but she clearly cares for him a great deal and goes so far as to report him to the board of health because she is afraid that he will die. Louise is the voice of reason in the play. She may not always be right, and she often makes unwelcome observations, but she is always logical and realistic. Within the structure of the Greek tragedy, Louise functions as something of a chorus. She comments on the others’ lives with a sense of critical distance and objectivity.

Vera, who is twenty-seven, is the woman Floyd left behind a year-and-a-half ago. He promised to send for Vera but took another woman to Chicago instead. Although she loves Floyd, after her long road back from heartbreak and devastation, she is wary of his apologies and at first rejects his attempts to win her back. Vera met Floyd as a young woman who had only recently left her mother’s house to set out as an adult on her own. Floyd, eight years her senior, had seen her on the street and pursued her, taking advantage of her romantic idealism and innocence about love. After Floyd left, she grappled with feelings of inadequacy because as much as he had drained from her, he still decided that it wasn’t enough. Vera learns from this experience, but of the three women, she is still the most idealistic about love. She finally agrees to go to Chicago with Floyd but provides herself with a return ticket, always reminding herself not to allow love to blind her. In the end, Floyd’s death leaves her abandoned, and her sorrow is so intense that she thinks she saw angels at his funeral.

At age fifty-nine, Hedley has deteriorated mentally and physically from living in a constant state of powerless desperation. Hedley is consumed with his knowledge of racial oppression. During slavery, Black Africans of all castes, including kings, were captured and subjugated. They were forced to labor as chattel and their descendants were severed from their birthright. Hedley is obsessed with the biblical promise that the kings of Ethiopia will rise again. He is the play’s antagonist, not because he is a villain but because he functions in opposition to the protagonist’s objective, finally stopping Floyd entirely from achieving his trajectory. Hedley doesn’t murder Floyd out of hatred or an aversion to his goals. In fact, the two men seem to have a special kinship. However, while Floyd is trying to succeed within a White system, Hedley rejects any association with White society. He believes that Floyd is a king, warning him that the White man will destroy him for it. Hedley longs to be a king himself, to reestablish lineage and have a son to inherit his birthright. Like Floyd, his desperation leads him to take what he wants, right or wrong.

Canewell plays the harmonica and performed with Floyd on his hit single. Unlike Floyd, Canewell isn’t driven to achieve success at any cost. Floyd is hungry and grabs at whatever opportunity he can, believing that he will be rewarded eventually. Canewell sees that Floyd’s manager and the record label are using Floyd and paying him a pittance. When recording Floyd’s first song, Canewell walked out when he was offered a bottle of liquor instead of his full pay. He was arrested by the Chicago police for playing on the street and accepting tips. Canewell isn’t willing to risk being devalued or losing more time in prison, while Floyd risks his life and freedom to steal money to get to Chicago. Floyd pursues Vera relentlessly until she takes him back, but although Canewell loves Vera deeply, he steps aside and wishes her well. Canewell carries a knife to defend himself, a weapon that is much less likely to land him in prison than the guns that Red and Floyd carry. He prefers safety to the risky pursuit of success.

Red, who plays the drums, also took part in recording Floyd’s hit song. He is much less risk averse than Canewell and seems to make decisions based on the relationship between effort and reward. For instance, his initial objection to going back to Chicago was enduring a long bus ride when he could spend that same time traveling to see his mother in Alabama. Red doesn’t agree to go until Floyd convinces him that the women in Chicago are just as beautiful as the ones in Alabama. Red also brags about juggling women, constructing a machismo image of himself as a rooster in a henhouse, and arousing Floyd’s jealousy by dancing with Vera. Red’s masculine assertiveness lacks Floyd’s intense drive, and he mainly focuses it on hedonistic ends.