Muse

Character Role Analysis

Stephen

Stephen is a muse, but not really to anyone in the novel. He's really meant to be an inspiration to the reader to take action, to go out there and stop thinking that factory workers are some kind of mass, to realize that they are individuals with feelings and desires, and to make their lives better. His existence as a man of "pure integrity" with sad life and a painful death make him a kind of Christ-figure in the novel, or at the very least, a sacrificial lamb.