Martin Eden

A self-taught sailor and laborer who pursues education and a writing career to win the love of Ruth Morse, only to grow disillusioned with the society that finally embraces him.

A sheltered, upper-middle-class college student who tutors Martin in grammar and manners and becomes the idealized object of his ambition.

A working-class cannery worker whose hands are scarred by labor; she loves Martin selflessly and without the class judgment Ruth shows him.

A brilliant, consumptive bohemian poet who befriends Martin, introduces him to San Francisco's radical intellectual circles, and voices a bleak view of success.

A veteran laundryman who works alongside Martin during a punishing stint at a hotel laundry and later finds a freer life as a drifter.