Sunday, 18 May 2025

The Fire Blossom - Characters

 

SPOILERS!!!


These are the characters in this novel:

- Karl Jensch is one of the German men who emigrate to New Zealand. Karl is intelligent and resourceful. Karl left school young to earn money for his family, but he lost his family shortly afterwards. When he heard about his neighbours moving to New Zealand, he wanted to go to. As he had no money, he wrote a letter to Mr Beit, and his daughter Jane wrote back, telling him that one of the places was for him. Karl was successful in New Zealand because he had bothered learning English, and one of the surveyors hired him. Karl tried to warn his former neighbours about the area where they wanted to move but they ignored him. Karl has always loved Ida but she refused to run away with him because she felt she had a duty to marry Ottfriend Brandmann. Karl goes to find Ida and helps Ottfriend when he gets into trouble, and they settle in Fenroy Farmer where they raise sheep. Here is where Karl and Ida get together. At the end of the book when Ottfried is dead, Ida and Karl plan to get married.

- Ida Lange Brandmann is one of the main characters. She emigrates to New Zealand with her father and siblings. She is engaged to Ottfriend Brandmann, but she loves Karl. Ida refuses to elope with Karl because she feels marrying Ottfried is her duty. When she marries him, she realises that she will be very unhappy. Ida meets Cat and become good friends. Ida becomes pregnant, and Cat is raped by Ottfried and gets pregnant. They decide that they will say that their children are twins. They have two daughters. Ida learns to shoot, and when Ottfriend is about to shoot Jane Finroy Beit, she shoots and kills her husband. At the end of the book she and Karl start their life in common. Ida is pregnant but she doesn't know if the baby is Karl's or Ottfried's.

- Cat/Poti Rata is the second main female character. Cat grew up in a brothel and her mother didn't care about her as she was continuously drunk. Cat escaped the brothel and the Mori adopted her. When years later the Maori asked her to leave when she helped Chris Fenroy to escape, she started working as a maid. Then she ended up as a good friend of Ida and they remained together. Cat was raped by Ida's hsuband, and she got pregnant and had a baby, who Ida and she agreed to say that they were twins. Cat loves Chris Fenroy, and at the end of the book she tells Chris, whose wife has started living with a Maori chieftain, that she can't marry him as she wants to be independent, but he will be in his life. 

- Ottfried Brandman is Ida's husband. He turns out to be a terrible person. He mistreats Ida and drinks too much. He even rapes Cat. He gets from bad to worse as the novel progresses. When at the end of the book he fears to be discovered for having stolen some sheep, he sells the sheep to the Maori and then bring the law to the Maori village. When Jane Finroy is about to tell the truth, Ottfried is about to shoot her, his wife, who is watching the scene, shoots and kills him instead. After his death Cat realises that Ottfried was the one who shoot Ta Roa, her adopted mother, probably pushed by his father and Ida's father, and his erratic behaviour these years may have been caused by his guilt. 

- Jane Beit did all the paperwork for her father, who arranged for German settlers to move to New  Zealand. Jane agrees to marry Chris Fenroy as her father wanted her to marry a noble man, as Chris indirectly was, and Chris wanted the land that Beit offered. Jane is cruel and sarcastic in her comments, and she doesn't love Chris. What she likes is to keep busy in business. Through her dealings with the Maori, she falls for the chieftain and she divorces Chris and goes to live in the Maori village. 

- Christopher Fenroy is an Englishman of noble origin. As he grew up in contact with the Maori, he knows the language, and he is the translator who works for Wakefield to talk to the Maori. That is how he meets Cat. Fenroy is held captive after the Wairau incident and Cat frees him, and that is the reason why she is asked to leave the village. Fenroy helps Cat to find a job as a maid for the Beits. Fenroy has an arranged marriage with Jane Beit. Her father is interested in marrying his daughter into a man of noble lineage, and Fenroy gets land in Canterbury. The marriage is not successful as neither Jane nor Fenroy love each other. Chris starts breeding sheep when Karl brings sheep alongside Cat, Ida and Ottfried. Chris is in love with Cat, and they declare their love for each other, and Cat decides to go and live with the Maori because she doesn't want to interfere in Chris's marriage. Yet, Jane falls for the Maori chieftain and gets a divorce. At the end of the book, Chris and Cat get together but they can't still get married.

- Carol Brandman is Ida and Ottfried's daughter. At first when Ida gives birth to her, she finds it difficult to love her.

- Linda Brandman is Cat and Ottfried's daughter. Ida feels closer to this baby rather than her own daughter. Ida and Cat tell everybody that Carol and Linda are twins. 

- Te Haitara is the chieftain who Jane falls for and eventually marries. 

- Chausseur is Ida's dog.

- Buddy is Karl's dog.

- Brandy is Karl's horse

-Jakob Lange is Ida's father. He used to be a blacksmith. Jakos was very strict with his Ida, and when things didn't work in New Zealand, he decided to move to Austraila. 

- Elsbeth/Betty Lange is Ida's younger sister. When her father decides to move to Australia, she and Erich run away and decide to stay in New Zealand. She starts working in a cafe run by a former prostitute in Wellington. 

- Franz Lange is Ida's youngest brother. He goes to Australia with his father. 

- Erich Brandmann is Ottfried's young brother. He falls for Elsbeth Lange, and when their parents decide to move to Australia, they run away and decide to stay in New Zealand. 

- Te Konuta is Te Haitara's nephew.

- Makutu is an old healer in the Maori village.

-Laura Redwood is Cat and Ida's closest neighbour. She lives with her husband and his two brothers. Laura is the one to give Ida the revolver and teaches her to shoot. 

-Edward Redwood and his brothers live close to Cat and Ida. They breed sheep.

- James Redwood is Edward's brother.

- Joseph Redwood is Laura's husband.

- William Deans is a sheep breader and he and his brother help Karl when he first buys sheep.

- John Deans is William's brother. 

- Emma and Alison Deans are William's and John's wives.

- Peter Brandmann is Ottfried's father. He is very authoritative. He eventually migrates to Australia when things go wrong in New Zealand.

- George Hempleman is the whaler and his wife helped young Cat. At the end of the book Cat goes to see him when she is told that he has been trying to find her for years. George tells him that he treated her wrong and his wife had left her all her jewels. Cat decides to sell the jewels to George and his second wife, and she buys a flock of sheep and takes them to the Maori.

- John Nicholas Beit is the man who arranges for the Germans to emigrate to New Zealand. When the New Zealand company gets bankrupt, he moves to Australia. 

- Te Ronga is Cat's foster mother. She is shot dead when the settlers come to talk to the Maori.

- Te Rauparaha is the chieftain who is Te Ronga's father.

- Joe Gibson is the man Ottfried partners with in the business of land speculation. Joe is a crook and when trouble crops up, he flees and leaves Ottfriend to face the music.

- Tom Carpenter is the travelling merchant whose wagon Cat escapes in, and she ends up in the Maori tribe. Years later Carpenter finds himself dealing with Jane Fenroy as she wants the Maori to make money. Actually Carpenter discovers that he is making a lot of money with the products the Maori make. Carpenter is happy to run into Cat again, and it is him who tells her that George Hempelmna has tried to find her for years. 

- Nadine is Carpenter's love. She is a French widow. Her husband bequeathed her a flock of sheep which she doesn't want to sell just anyone. When Cat suggest she buy the sheep after she inherits Linda Hempelman's jewels, Nadine agrees as she wants to open her own café. 

- Paddy Reilly is a pub owner in Nelson. Ottfried takes Cat and Ida there, and Paddy lets them sleep in his shed. He also hires them to clean and cook. 

- Linda Hempelman was George's wife. Cat visited her often, and they wer fond of each other, but Linda was sick. When she died, she left Cat her jewels, but Cat didn't learn about it until she went to see George Hempelman. 

- Elizabeth Hempelman is George's second wife. When Cat comes to see them, she is very kind to her.

- Captain Rudyard Butler is the man who buys land from Ottfried and Joe. 

- Sean O'Malley is the sheriff.

- Elfriede Busche is one of the men in the community. She discovers that Cat is pregnant when she sees her vomit. Then her husband tells Ottfried.

- Barker is the owner of the brothel where Cat grew up. Barker wanted to auction Cat's virginity, but she decided to escape.

- Priscilla is one of the prostitutes working for Barker.

- Suzanne is Cat's mother. She is a prostitute and a drunkard.

- Reverend Morton was a clergyman who lusted after Cat when she was only thirteen.

- Anton Lange is Ida's brother. When he has a row with his father, he decides to leave Sankt Pauli and move back to Nelson.

- Master Brakel was Karl and Ida's teacher in Germany. He was unhappy when Karl stopped coming to school because his family needed to earn money.

- Frederick Tucket is one of the surveyors. Karl works for him for some time. 

- Hein is a sailor on the Sankt Pauli who teaches Karl English. 

- Arthur Wakefield is a real character and the founder of Nelson. He is one of the men executed by the Maori after the Wairau incident.

- Colonel William Wakefield is Arthur Wakefield's brother.

Thompson is the police magistrate who is also executed by the Maori.

- Pastor Wholers is the priest that leads the congregation.

- Peter Hansen is Beit's butler.

- Margaret Hansen was Beit's housekeeper. 

- Catterel is one of the surveyors who are in the expedition to talk to the Maori. 

- Mary is the Beits' maid. She and Cat share the bedroom when they both work for the Beits. Mary and Cat are eventually let go when the New Zealand Company gets bankrupt and the Beits can't afford to pay them. 

- Jamie is the Beits' houseboy who is unkind to Cat. Actually, Cat has to flee from him and his drunk friends when they threaten to attack her. It is then that Cat meets Ida. 

- Mortimer Partridge and Alice Partridge ook in the Langes when they first arrived in New Zealand. Elsbeth was happy as the Partridges had a shop, and she enjoyed helping there. Yet, when they had to leave, she was unhappy.

- Paul Partridge is the Partridges' son.

- Amanda Patridge is the Patridges' dauhgter.

- Hannes and Jost are Karl's cabin mates when he travels from Germany.

-Friedrich Hauser is the roofer's son and who Jacob wants Elsbeth to marry.

-Tommy McDuff is Nelson's baker's son who Elsbeth claims she will marry one day.

- Lucie is the prostitute that works for Paddy Reilly. Ottfried is one of her regular clients.

- William Newton is a lawyer who is hired to take Ottfried and Gibson to talk for cheating a client.

- Celine is a former prostitute who owns a café in Welllington. She hires Betty/Elsbeth and protects her. 

- Pete is the boatman.

- Kunary is young Maori who is slow and who looks after the sheep that Cat brings to the Maori.

No comments:

Post a Comment