Else
This young Jewish girl is the novel's protagonist. While on vacation with her aunt, her luxury is interrupted with terrible news. Her mother says that her father is imprisoned for a serious debt that the family cannot afford. She must find an elderly family man named Von Dorsday to ask him for the money to free her father, but she must do this alone without guidance, and through the journey, she becomes a woman.
Else's mother
Else's mother offers what little advice she can through a letter. Put plainly, she isn't much of a help to her young daughter, and although Else was raised with romantic ideas, the mother's helplessness thrusts Else into a fate outside her power to control. Else's mother is a minor character, yes, but more importantly, she represents Else's goal of maturity.
Herr Von Dorsday
This man is highly symbolic, because he is elderly, and because he has the money the family needs to free the father from debtor's jail. Although Else works very hard to find him and speak with him, the pressure of pleasing her parents in such a dire situation is so stressful that she falls apart. On the day she goes to finally meet Von Dorsday, she leaves nearly naked, faints in a panic and overdoses on a toxic chemical.
