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Character Analysis

The Doctor's Wife A fifty-something woman living with her husband, the ophthalmologist. When the plague of blindness first devastates the city and the infected are placed into isolation, the doctor's wife feigns the sickness to care for her husband. She constantly expects to lose her vision at any moment, yet somehow she is the only person immune to the contagion of blindness. This ultimately forces her into becoming responsible for the blind inmates, yet she admits that the pressures of caring for a band of helpless people exhausts her, and she even begins to wish she too were blind. She murders two sadistic inmates in the asylum where the blind are contained and helps the others escape the quarantine. She and her husband reappear in the novel's sequel, Seeing, where she is credited as the "Seeing Woman", and is viewed with mistrust and disdain by the other city dwellers, as no one knows how or why she retained her sight when the rest of the country was struck blind.

The Doctor A friendly ophthalmologist who becomes blind after attempting to treat the first handful of people who are infected by the "White Blindness". He too quickly goes blind and is placed into quarantine with his wife, who can still see but together they hide this fact for fear that she may be forced into becoming a slave for the blind inmates. He resents the dependence he has on his wife after he loses his sight. He is elected leader of his ward and does his best to keep order and peace through diplomatic strageties, but quickly finds his compassion does him little or no good amongst the bands of ruthless detainees in the asylum.

Girl with Dark Glasses A beautiful teenage prostitute with a cold and unfeeling demeanor. She is struck blind after entertaining one of her clients in a hotel and is committed to the derelict asylum. Though by nature she is hard-hearted and icy, she develops love and warmth after caring for an orphaned boy with a squint. By the end of the novel she has reformed her uncaring ways and compliments the doctor's wife as being "beautiful", despite having never seen her, claiming that in her (the girl's) dreams, the doctor's wife is always beautiful.

King of Ward 3 A brutal and cruel tyrant who holds the rest of the blind in the asylum at his mercy by threatening them with a gun. He deprives them of food and supplies in exchange for their valuables, but when those assets are exhausted, he demands the women. After one woman is viciously murdered, the doctor's wife snaps and murders him. His death starts a war, resulting in the asylum being burned to the ground, with the King's thugs perishing in the blaze.

Man with Black Eye Patch A kindly and mysterious old man who reacts calmly to the blindness that is infesting the city, and keeps the inmates of the asylum updated with news of the outside world with his radio. He is very spiritual, and after the blindness lifts from the country, he states that he hopes they have learned a very valuable lesson about human nature.