Leo Colston

E359208

Leo Colston is the reflective narrator and central figure of L.P. Hartley’s novel "The Go-Between," whose childhood experiences of acting as a messenger between illicit lovers shape his adult understanding of memory, class, and betrayal.

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All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Leo Colston canonical 3

Statements (45)

Predicate Object
instanceOf fictional character
literary character
actsAs go-between
adultCharacterTrait emotionally repressed
haunted by past
adultProfession retired civil servant (implied)
ageInMainEvents about thirteen
appearsIn The Go-Between
associatedWithLocation Brandham Hall
associatedWithQuote The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
centralCharacterOf The Go-Between
childCharacterTrait imaginative
naive
childhoodSetting Norfolk country house
consequenceOfTrauma lifelong psychological damage
createdBy L. P. Hartley
firstPublicationContext The Go-Between
surface form: The Go-Between (1953 novel)
gender male
hasOlderSelfIn The Go-Between
hasYoungerSelfIn The Go-Between
interactsWith Maudsley family
involvedIn illicit love affair as messenger
language English
literaryPeriod 20th-century British literature
literaryRole reflective narrator
messengerFor Marian Maudsley
Ted Burgess
narrativeFunction explores unreliability of memory
mediates between childhood and adulthood perspectives
narrativePerspective first-person
narrativeStructureRole frame narrator
narratorOf The Go-Between
nationality English
occupation narrator
remembersEventsFrom fifty years later
socialStatus middle class
symbolicRole embodiment of lost innocence
victim of class system
themeAssociation betrayal
class
loss of innocence
memory
repression
timePeriodOfChildhood summer of 1900
traumaticEvent discovery of Marian and Ted's affair

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

The Go-Between mainCharacter Leo Colston
Marian Maudsley usesGoBetween Leo Colston
Ted Burgess usesGoBetween Leo Colston