The estate of the rich
The Bellmonts were rich whites who lived not fat from Mag. There she left her daughter Frado. The image of their house is provided with the purpose to show luxury of life of rich people: “old fashioned, two-story white house, environed by fruitful acres, and embellished by shrubbery and shade trees.” While Mag lived in a hovel.
Frado
Frado was “a beautiful mulatto, with long, curly black hair, and handsome, roguish eyes, sparkling with an exuberance of spirit almost beyond restraint. She was of wilful, determined nature, a stranger to fear, and would not hesitate to wander away should she decide to.” Such a description of the character is given of the protagonist of the story. She was strong and determined since her birth, and these features helped her to survive, and not to yield under the pressure of Mrs. Bellmont’s severe treatment and other hardships.
Frado’s husband
Frado has met finally a man she felt attracted to, he “was a fine, straight negro, whose back showed no marks of the lash, erect as if it never crouched beneath a burden. There was a silent sympathy, and she opened her heart to the presence of love—that arbitrary and inexorable tyrant.” But these relationships brought Frado little happiness, and she again was all left alone. Each new acquaintance made her more and more lonely.
