Reverend Larry Shannon
Reverend Larry Shannon is the main protagonist of The Night of the Iguana. At the beginning of the play, Shannon, who is a tour guide for Blake Tours, arrives at Costa Verde with a furious group of college professors on his tour bus. As the play progresses, the reader learns that Shannon has a reputation for sleeping with young women; in fact, this is the exact reason for his tour's anger as Shannon sleeps with a young woman on the tour named Charlotte. Shannon was also a reverend at one point, but he left his church after being accused of sleeping with another young woman and committing heresy. By the end of the play, Shannon is overcome by his sexual desires, and he has a mental breakdown, which forces Maxine and Hannah to tie Shannon up. Shannon struggles to prevent himself from pursuing his sexual temptations, and he also does not care about the consequences of his actions. Shannon's mental breakdown in Act Three further indicates that Shannon is a man who is constantly teetering on the edge of self-destruction.
Maxine Faulk
Maxine Faulk is one of the main protagonists of The Night of the Iguana, and she is also the proprietor of the Costa Verde, the setting of the play. At the beginning of the play, Faulk is described as a "stout, swanky woman in her middle forties," who just lost her husband, Fred, due to an infection he obtained while fishing. Furthermore, Faulk often wears revealing clothing around the hotel, and she has sex with multiple employees while also flaunting her sexuality. Initially, Faulk seems as if she is an abrasive middle-aged woman with a tough personality. However, as the play progresses, the reader sees Faulk's personality change as she becomes more sympathetic and compassionate towards Shannon and Hannah. By the end of the play, Faulk notes that Shannon always comes back to her, and she has paid for his multiple visits to a mental asylum even though Faulk lacks money. Faulk's sympathy towards Shannon displays a softer side of her personality, and she obviously cares about Shannon--despite his flaws. Throughout the play, Faulk also showcases a profound feeling of loneliness, as she often sleeps with her employees to prevent her from being alone.
Miss Judith Fellowes
Miss Judith Fellowes is a member of Shannon's tour, and she is main antagonist of the play. In Act One, Shannon stops at the Costa Verde to take a break and talk to Maxine Faulk; however, Miss Judith Fellowes approaches the trio of Shannon, Faulk, and Hank with a furious attitude as she claims that Shannon slept with Charlotte, one of the younger women on the tour. Although the tour is composed of female teachers from the Baptist Female College, Miss Fellowes is obviously the de facto leader of the entire group. She constantly attempts to force Shannon to get the tour back on its scheduled route, and she contacts Blake Tours to try to get someone to take over Shannon's tour. Despite her blunt, abrasive nature, Fellowes also cares about friends and counterparts, as she prevents Charlotte from marrying Shannon, who takes Charlotte's love for granted.
Hannah Jelkes
Hannah is one of the protagonists in The Night of the Iguana. Hannah is a middle-aged woman, who is initially described as "totally feminine." Hannah is an artist who paints portraits of people in the places that she travels to around the world; however, she also takes care of Nonno, her ninety-seven-year-old grandfather, who is also the world's "oldest poet." Although Hannah seems to only desire to keep grandfather alive, she eventually finds herself in the middle of a quasi-love triangle between Maxine Faulk and herself. At the end of Act One, it is inferred that Shannon finds Hannah attractive, and he frequently attempts to seduce her. Unfortunately for Shannon, though, his attempts to seduce Hannah do not work as Hannah is not intrigued by sex or love like Shannon. In relation to the rest of the characters, Hannah serves as the moral center of the play. She has a calm, positive attitude, and she is not consumed by her desires like Faulk and Shannon. Hannah also has a resilient personality as she informs Shannon that she had to overcome her temptations, but she believes he can triumph over his desires as well.
Nonno
Nonno is Hannah Jelkes' ninety-seven-year-old grandfather. Nonno is wheelchair-bound, and he showcases a diminished memory throughout the play as he frequently forgets the lines to the poem he wrote when he was younger. In Act Two, Hannah notes that Nonno has been having "cerebral accidents" recently, which cause him to loss his sight, mind, and even his memory at times. Despite these factors, though, Nonno maintains a constant upbeat attitude that astounds anyone who comes into contact with the man; he even acts as a father-figure to Hannah as her parents died in a car accident when she was younger. Furthermore, Nonno is surprisingly introspective and reflective as he often muses on the nature of life and god. At the end of the play, Nonno recites a poem that he has been working on for years before quietly dying.
Charlotte Goodall
Charlotte Goodall is one of the members of Shannon's tour; however, Charlotte serves a greater purpose in the play, as she is the catalyst for Shannon's tour collapsing at the beginning of the play. Before Shannon arrived at Costa Verde, he slept with Charlotte, who is a seventeen-year-old woman. In Act Two, the reader sees that Charlotte is attached to Shannon after their sexual encounter. Charlotte approaches Shannon, who is hiding in Hannah Jelkes' room, and she tells him that she loves him dearly. Charlotte also informs Shannon that she expects him to marry her, and she even states that she forgives him for slapping her after the two had sex. Unfortunately for Charlotte, though, Miss Judith Fellowes drags Charlotte away from Shannon, and she forces Charlotte to go back to Texas at the end of the play.
Pedro
Pedro is one of Maxine Faulk's employees at the Costa Verde. In the opening scene of the play, Pedro is described as "a Mexican of about twenty--slim and attractive." Later in the play, Faulk admits that she slept with Pedro, which lost her respect in the eyes of her employees. Pedro does not seem to care about his profession, as he is constantly drunk and slacking off at work.
Hank
Hank is Shannon's guide for his tours. From the beginning of the play, Hank seems annoyed with Shannon--particularly when it relates to his sexual encounters with the women on his tour; nonetheless, Hank helps Shannon convince the women on the tour bus that they should stay at the Costa Verde overnight. By the end of the night, though, Hank refuses to work with Shannon any longer, and he eventually leaves Costa Verde by assisting Jake Latta, a representative for Blake Tours, take over Shannon's tour.
Jake Latta
Jake Latta is a representative for Blake Tours that arrives at the Costa Verde to take over Shannon's tour in Act Three. When Latta arrives, he tells Shannon that he is going to take over Shannon's tour because Blake Tours has deemed Shannon ineffective at his job. Initially, Latta tries to reason with Shannon, and he is polite to him as he informs Shannon that he can ride back with him to Texas; however, Shannon becomes furious when Latta asks for his keys, and then tells Shannon that he will not obtain any severance pay. Latta eventually has to physically confront Shannon because he refuses to give up his keys, and Latta takes the keys, along with tour, back to the United States.
Fred Faulk
Fred Faulk is the former husband of Maxine Faulk, who is one of the main protagonists of The Night of the Iguana. Before the events of the play, Fred died because of an infection that he suffered during a fishing accident. Although Fred was married to Maxine, they had a strained relationship as Fred had not had sex with Maxine for weeks. Fred was also at least a decade older than Maxine, which further strained their relationship as the two had different levels of sexual desire.
