Character of James - The Boy comes Home by A. A. MIlne

Character sketch of James

       Uncle James is an old man with dominating nature. He is the husband of Emily and uncle of Philip. Philip has lost his parents when he was very young. Uncle James and Emily are the guardians of Philip. Uncle James is the man with old belief system, as per him youngsters are not mature and they cannot take their decisions without the help of elders, as he told Philip that,

“All you young boys seem to think you've come back from France to teach us our business. You'll find that it is you who'll have to learn, not we.”

       He set strict rules in his house. He is a man with punctuality and he also forces other member of his house to follow the rules with the same punctuality. All members including Mrs. Higgins, Mary and Aunt Emily are ready but Philip is different. Philip wants to be free from the shackles of ‘watch’ – a clock and also from the watch of Uncle James.

Dominating nature of Uncle James can be observed when Emily asks him about the career of Philip, he says,

“EMILY. Are you really going to talk it over with him, James, or are you just going to tell him that he _must_ come?

JAMES (surprised). What do you mean? What's the difference? Naturally we shall talk it over first, and--er--naturally he'll fall in with my wishes.”

      We can observe two different sides of the character of James, before the dream sequence and after the dream sequence. Before the dream sequence he was quite dominating and also sure that he would convince Philip by the ‘power of purse’, but after having a horrible dream about Philip’s rebellion, he seems to be very flexible and friendly with Philip.

      We can observe as a reader that the dominating Uncle James is actually very afraid of Philip in the dream. He begs for his life in the dream. At the end of the play, the character of James is in confusion and the same way as a reader we also have doubt that the dream was not actually a dream.

There are some comic elements in the character of James. James gets awkward during his conversation with Philip which creates comedy for the readers.

For character of Philip - click here