Emma Downs
Along with Jerry and Robert, Emma is one of the three main characters who appears onstage during the play. As the play begins, she is 38 years old and running a successful art gallery. She is also separating from Robert, after having affairs with Jerry and Casey. Although Pinter does not provide any physical description of Emma, Jerry describes her as being “so beautiful” (p. 115).
While, like Jerry and Robert, Emma is guilty of infidelity, she is portrayed more favorably overall. She treats both Robert and Jerry with civility, and defends Casey when both men speak negatively about him. While she works full time, she also does the caretaking for her children, putting them to bed while Robert drinks in the living room. Thus, while her character is by no means without flaws, Emma is nonetheless the most sympathetic of the play’s three main characters.
Robert Downs
Along with Emma and Jerry, Robert is one of the three main characters who appears onstage during the play. As the play begins, he is 40 years old and is separating from Emma: he is aware that she has had affairs with Jerry and Casey, and she knows that “he’s had…other women for years” (p. 18).
Robert works as a book publisher, and like Jerry has become wealthy from the work of writers like Casey. Although Jerry recommended that he publish the work of Spinks, Robert declined, later describing himself as “a very foolish publisher” after Spinks becomes a best-seller (p. 97). Ironically, he admits that he does not enjoy literature, saying “I’m a bad publisher because I hate books. Or to be more precise, prose” (p. 97). Robert enjoys playing squash, and like Jerry, he is frequently seen drinking alcohol.
As a character, Robert demonstrates an inability to express his feelings and seriously address the situations he finds himself in. When Emma tells him she is having an affair with Jerry, he responds “Ah. Yes. I thought it might be something like that, something along those lines'' (p. 69). Although his marriage is ending, he seems to show little disappointment or frustration.
Like Jerry, Robert is often shown in a negative light – he drinks to excess, makes several misogynistic comments, and admits to having “hit Emma once or twice” (p. 33). Again, Pinter presents a principal character who is flawed to the point of unlikable.
Jerry
Along with Emma and Robert, Jerry is one of the three main characters who appears onstage during the play. Employed as a literary agent, Jerry is 40 years old when the play begins. Although Pinter offers no physical description of Jerry, he is characterized as a heavy-drinking, philandering literary agent. Jerry is successful in his career, and travels often to support the writers he represents, such as Casey. Although he is married to Judith – who never appears onstage – it is revealed in the first scene that Jerry had engaged in an affair with Emma, and the play chronicles Jerry’s affair with Emma from its end backwards to its beginning. Jerry’s affair with Emma is complicated by the fact that Emma is married to Jerry’s best friend, Robert. The two have been friends since their university days, and Jerry was the best man at Robert and Emma’s wedding, though in recent years the two have drifted apart.
Jerry is hardly an admirable character: he betrays his wife and his best friend, and expresses little remorse. In fact, when Jerry finds out that Robert has known about his affair with Emma for several years, he even has the audacity to call Robert “a bastard” (p. 32). Showing little commitment to his friends, Jerry instead directs his loyalties to the artists whose work “sells very well” (p. 36). By endowing Jerry with so few redeeming qualities, Pinter effectively tests the audience’s ability to sympathize with his character.
Roger Casey
Although Roger Casey – referred to by his last name for most of the play – never appears onstage, he is nonetheless a major figure in the plot of Betrayal. In the first act, it is revealed that Emma – no longer having an affair with Jerry – is now having an affair with Casey, a motivating factor in the end of her marriage to Robert.
Casey is a writer who is represented by Jerry and published by Robert. Jerry expresses a sense of pride that he “discovered [Casey] when he was just a poet” and played a large role in Casey’s success. In the fourth act, Jerry reveals that Casey has left his wife, and Robert says that he is “writing a novel about a man who leaves his wife and three children and goes to live alone on the other side of London to write a novel about a man who leaves his wife and three children” (p. 53). His previous novel, “Drying Out” was about “the man who lived in a big house in Hampstead with his wife and three children” (p. 53). Emma expresses the belief that Casey’s use of biographical material in his writing is “bloody dishonest” (p. 55). Perhaps motivated by jealousy, Robert and Jerry speak critically of Casey: Robert says that “his art does seem to be falling away” and Jerry says that “he’s put on weight” (p. 35). Still, they are both pleased to “do very well out of Casey” and Robert admits that he is “a brutally honest squash player” (p. 36, p. 55).
Judith
Judith – Jerry’s wife and the mother of Sam and Sarah – never appears onstage. She is often said to be at the hospital, where she works as a doctor. While it is unclear if she is aware of Jerry’s infidelity, Jerry suspects that she might be having an affair with another doctor. In any case, her lack of presence onstage can be seen to symbolize the lack of presence she has in her husband’s life.
Sam
Sam – Judith and Jerry’s son – never appears onstage. In dialogue with Emma at the beginning of the play, Jerry describes Sam as “tall. Quite tall. Does a lot of running. He’s a long distance runner. He wants to be a zoologist” (p. 8).
Sarah
Sarah – Judith and Jerry ’s daughter – never appears onstage. While little is said about Sarah, Jerry mentions that she is 10 at the beginning of the play.
Ned
The son of Emma and Jerry, he is five years old at the beginning of the play. He was born during the time of Emma and Jerry’s affair; however, Emma confirms that he was conceived while Jerry was away for two months in New York for work.
Charlotte
Charlotte is Robert and Emma’s daughter, who is thirteen at the beginning of the play. In the opening act, Jerry tells Emma that he “saw Charlotte the other day” (10). Jerry describes her as looking “lovely” and Emma says “she’s smashing” (p. 11). Throughout the play, Jerry and Emma reminisce about the time Jerry “picked her up and threw her up and caught her” (p. 12).
Spinks
Another character that never appears onstage, Spinks is a writer represented by Jerry. While Jerry wanted Robert to publish Spinks’ novel about “betrayal,” Robert declined because he believed that “there’s not more to say on the subject” (p. 63). Jerry describes him as being “a very thin bloke. About fifty. Wears dark glasses day and night” (p. 81).
