Mr. Ryder Character Analysis

Mr. Ryder is Charles’s father. His wife, Charles’s mother, was killed abroad while working with a Red Cross missionary group during World War I. Mr. Ryder never remarried and lives, quite happily, alone in his house in London. Mr. Ryder is an extremely passive-aggressive man and hates to have his solitude interrupted. He studies history and is happiest when he is left alone with his books. Charles observes that he seems much older than he is and that he despises anything modern: he is like a person from another time. Although Mr. Ryder never openly dismisses anyone from spending time with him, he is so unpleasant that no one wants to do so. When Charles runs out of money, after his first term at Oxford, and must spend the summer at home, Mr. Ryder engages in a subtle “battle” with him to try and make him leave. He avoids Charles during the day and deliberately irritates him at dinner in the evenings. When Charles invites a friend named Jorkins for dinner, Mr. Ryder pretends to think that Jorkins is American and teases the poor, confused young man all night long. He then arranges his own dinner party for Charles and invites a group of young people whom he knows that Charles will hate. During Charles’s childhood, after the death of his mother, Mr. Ryder’s aunt came to live with them for a time and grew close to Charles. Although it made Charles happy to have her in the house, Mr. Ryder proudly explains to Charles that he soon “got her out” and seems pleased that she never came back to see them.