Mrs. Foster
Mrs. Foster is the central character in the story, and though it is written in the third person, it intimately portrays the anxiety Mrs. Foster feels as she attempts to make it to the airport on time. She has been married for more than 30 years to a domineering man, Mr. Foster, who not only dictates her plans but seems to derive a sadistic pleasure from stoking Mrs. Foster's pathological fear. Mrs. Foster is meek and obedient, too concerned with propriety to challenge her husband's behavior or question his intentions behind delaying their departures. At the end of the story, the narrator suggests that Mr. Foster's relentless and subtle cruelties toward his wife pushed her to knowingly leave him to die in a broken elevator.
Mr. Foster
Mr. Foster is the antagonist of the story, as he is not only aware of his wife's anxiety over punctuality but intentionally tries to stoke that anxiety by delaying them at every turn. Like Mrs. Foster, Mr. Foster is governed by upperclass propriety—he masks his cruelty to Mrs. Foster with manners and terms of endearment, often confusing Mrs. Foster into remaining silent about her discomfort. Mr. Foster is domineering and controlling, making decisions on Mrs. Foster's behalf and justifying them with careful logic and kind words. The story showcases how Mr. Foster's consistent passive-aggressive cruelties toward his wife eventually lead Mrs. Foster to a single act of profound cruelty that ultimately kills her husband.
Walker
Walker is the butler of the Foster residence. He is notable as a character because he seems to understand well the dynamic between Mr. and Mrs. Foster, taking pity on Mrs. Foster as she worries about making it to the airport. The butler makes efforts to reassure Mrs. Foster that she will not miss her flight even as Mr. Foster seems to be doing everything possible to stoke her phobia.
The Chauffeur
The chauffeur is an Irish man whose role in the narrative is important primarily because of what he does not do rather than what he does. The impatient Mrs. Foster asks the chauffeur to go into her home and inform Mr. Foster that the present he left the car to look for was actually inside the car the whole time. The entire story twists on the fact that the chauffeur cannot fulfill this request because the door to the house is locked. When he comes back to ask Mrs. Foster for the key, she decides to tell her husband herself. That the chauffeur cannot get inside the house generates the macabre turn in the story, though readers will likely not notice until the very end.
