C.S. Lewis
The text is written in an information style with the author often inserting himself as a character in the form of observations or personal anecdotes. This should not be confused with a memoir or autobiography, however. The essays making up the book are not a collection of remembrances, but rather philosophical analyses of various types of human love with Lewis becoming a character primarily by means of a first-person observation.
Mrs. Fidget
Mrs. Fidget is a character who appears in the section on “Affection.” Not intended to be taken literally, she is a fictional construction whom the author uses ironically to underscore how affection can be perverted. Mrs. Fidget is described as someone “who lived for her family.” Lewis then demonstrates this through examples: how she tirelessly cleaned their clothes, was always up to welcome others back home at night, making clothes, etc. This selflessness sets the stage or the ironic reversal: her demonstrations of affection for her family resulted in poorly washed clothes, spoiled evenings knowing she was waiting to see when you got home and homemade clothing nobody wanted to wear in public.
Dr. Quartz
Dr. Quartz is another example of misplaced affection. He is beloved by all his students even after graduating, but invariably comes the day when each and every one is informed that he is otherwise too busy to see them. The reason for the reversal is that Dr. Quartz is a rock solid model of affection on every occasion with one irreversible exception: students dare not disagree with him by expressing independent thought.
Eros
Eros is the Greek god of sensual love. For Lewis, writing for a broadcast audience listening to these essays first as radio lectures, Eros becomes more socially acceptable symbol of romantic love. He is the personification of being "in love."
Venus
Eros is not given the full weight of carrying the symbolic incarnation of romantic love. Venus, the Roman goddess of love and desire thus becomes—for reasons not entirely explained—the character selected by Lewis to represent specifically the “carnal or animally sexual element within Eros.”
