The other characters seem to be greatly impressed with Stephen in the beginning complementing both his character and his ability to speak French “You speak very good French for an Englishman”. They welcome him into family life “You’re welcome to join us” and openly discuss maters in front of him.
Before Stephen embarks on his relationship with Isabelle he is described in a sensible and honest light, never offending and always polite.
Throughout the first part of the novel Sebastian Faulks entices the reader with snippets of Stephen’s life in England “I was brought up by my grandparents, then in an institution until I was taken away from it by a man I’d never met before”. The information given by him in the opening pages is very vague, he makes a comment and does not expand he simply excepts the other character’s invitations to end the topic, “I’m sorry Monsieur. Lisette is always asking questions.”
Knowing such little detail about Stephen and finding out small parts of his life invokes sympathy in the reader. Aspects of his personality such as his fear for birds “It’s not that I think it will attack, it’s just some strange fear”, allow the reader to feel pity towards him since his fear would be regarded by most people as fairly peculiar and child like. Isabelle instantly comforts him “sit next to me and let me put my arm around you. That’s right. My poor boy. Is that better? Shall I stroke your hair?” her response towards him after he has seen the pigeon invites the reader to imitate her reaction, forcing the reader to feel sorry for him.
The reader then finds out why Stephen is so afraid of birds “It had maggots under its wing and drooling, milky eyes”, a valid reason for fearing birds is giving with a graphic description of his trauma. The reader therefore feels empathy towards Stephen and sympathy is gained.
When Stephen confides in Isabelle about his childhood new sorrow is found for the character since many traumatic events occurred in such a short period of years. His father abandoned him and his mother, his mother left him with his grandparents and had another family, and he was eventually taken away from them and put into an institution. Even when a ‘rich’ and intelligent man saves Stephen from the institution it is not a happy ending “I didn’t like him. I thought he would treat me like his son. But he didn’t he just made me work.” His short and quick paced sentences suggest this is the first time he is sharing the story with anyone and he is clearly very distressed about his experience, he feels that his life has been some sort of social experiment. The reader is encouraged to feel that his whole childhood has been a great injustice.
At the end of the first part of the novel a slight feeling of sympathy for Stephen returns as he has given up everything for Madame Azaire and she leaves him. ‘I feel we have gone to far and I must turn back.’ At this point the reader instantly forgets about what has happened before and instantly feels pity for Stephen. “He lay and stared at the night beyond the window, he felt himself grow cold.” The picture of Stephen alone and cold is a great comparison to that of images before. The reader is left feeling compassion for Stephen.
Stephen is an ambiguous character and he does not reveal great aspects of his life. He rarely mentions England at all and he only touches upon his childhood. Even Isabelle is intrigued by his character and wishes to know more after his brief summery of his childhood “That’s all? That’s all your life? You seem old to me, I think of you sometimes as being older than I am.”
There seems to be another side to Stephen that occasionally arises. When there is an outbreak of violence at the factory he punches a man in the face for insulting Isabelle. He does not realize his own strength and manages to cause a nose bleed and swelling to his own hand. This side is not seen again until he pushes Azaires down into his chair, however this anger has a clear root, the previous outburst did not.
Stephen keeps a journal “when the subject matter was sensitive, he would change the sex of the characters and note their actions or his responses with phrases” even his personal diary is not clear cut and fully truthful, he changes things so people do not know what he is truly thinking or feeling, this leads the reader to believe that there are many unanswered questions about Stephen’s character.
Although Stephen gets blackmailed by, he should be mature and adult enough to know he has to say no as she is only a young girl and he is a man, “Despite himself, Stephen felt a reflex feeling if desire”. This image of her being a young girl and not yet fully mature enough to handle a sexual relationship is proved when as he touches her she gets scared “I want to go now. I want to go home” this plea of fright from Lisette creates a perverted picture of Stephen and causes distrust from the reader to his character, this point leaves many unanswered questions about the intentions of Stephen.
The reader is left questioning what they know about Stephen’s character because of some comments made by Isabelle at the end of part one “I truly love him, but he frightens me a little”. They are left questioning whether Faulks has not mentioned a personality trait, which will later be revealed, or that Isabelle is simply frightened of her new life and tries to attach this anxiety with Stephen.
