Walter Bates

Character Analysis

He's a miner and husband to Elizabeth/father to Annie and John. We never really get to "meet" him as a character; in fact, the story is all about his absence. He shows up dead at the end of the story, having perished when a tunnel in the mine caved in.

We do learn that when he was alive, he liked to party and drink a lot, which is why it took his wife so long to go looking for him.