Character Analysis — Supporting Characters

While Kathy is the narrator, the supporting characters in Never Let Me Go are essential for understanding the novel's themes and Ishiguro's critique of society. This lesson analyses Tommy, Ruth, and the key adult figures — Miss Lucy, Miss Emily, and Madame.

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Character Relationship Map

              MADAME (Marie-Claude)
             /          |           \
        Gallery     fears the     wants to
        curator     clones        prove they
                                  have souls
            MISS EMILY                MISS LUCY
           (head of Hailsham)        (guardian)
           believes in gradual       believes in
           revelation                direct truth
                    \               /
                     HAILSHAM
                    /    |    \
              KATHY -- TOMMY -- RUTH
              (narrator)  |    (manipulator)
                    \     |    /
                   love triangle

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Tommy

Tommy is arguably the novel's most tragic figure — a character whose emotional vulnerability and creative struggle embody the central question of whether the clones have souls.

Tommy's Arc

  Angry Outcast → Gentle Friend → Ruth's Partner → Kathy's Love → Devastated Donor
   (Part One)      (Part One)      (Part Two)       (Part Three)     (Part Three)

Tommy's Rages

In childhood, Tommy has violent rages — outbursts of screaming and physical fury that make him an outcast among the other students. These rages are significant:

Interpretation	Argument
Frustration at his inability to create art	The guardians value creativity; Tommy's failure excludes him
Instinctive rebellion	His body rebels even when his mind cannot articulate why
Suppressed knowledge	On some level, he senses the truth about their fate
Foreshadowing	His final scream in Chapter 22 mirrors his childhood rages but with full understanding

Tommy's Art

Tommy's relationship with creativity is a key thread:

• At Hailsham, he cannot produce art and is mocked for it
• Miss Lucy tells him it does not matter — then later retracts this
• At the Cottages and later, he begins creating small, intricate animal drawings
• He believes his art will prove to Madame that he and Kathy are in love, earning them a deferral
• When the deferral turns out to be a myth, his art becomes meaningless within the system — yet the reader recognises its genuine beauty and humanity

Examiner's tip: Tommy's art is rich material for essays about the soul, identity, and the gap between intention and reception. You could write: "Tommy's delicate animal drawings are profoundly ironic: they demonstrate exactly the kind of soul and creativity that the Gallery was designed to detect, yet they arrive too late — Hailsham has closed, and society has moved on. Ishiguro uses Tommy's art to suggest that proof of humanity is irrelevant to a world that has chosen not to look."

Key Tommy Quotes

Quote	Significance
"I think Miss Lucy was right ... We weren't being taught enough about donations and all that."	Tommy grasps the "told and not told" problem
"Suppose it's true, what the veterans are saying. Suppose some special arrangement can be made for some couples."	Hope — fragile and ultimately misplaced
His primal scream (Chapter 22)	Raw grief; mirrors childhood rages but now with full understanding

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Ruth

Ruth is the novel's most complex and divisive character — manipulative, insecure, and deeply human. She functions as Kathy's closest friend, her rival, and ultimately, the catalyst for the deferral quest.

Ruth's Arc

  Social Leader → Possessive Girlfriend → Cruel Manipulator → Regretful Donor → Posthumous Redeemer
   (Part One)       (Part Two)              (Part Two)         (Part Three)       (Part Three)

Ruth's Manipulation

Ruth's manipulative behaviour is consistent throughout the novel:

Behaviour	Example	What it reveals
Social control	She dictates who is "in" and "out" of her group at Hailsham	Need for power and validation
Mimicry	She copies behaviours from television at the Cottages	Desperation to appear "normal"; lack of authentic identity
Possessiveness	She keeps Tommy as her boyfriend despite sensing he loves Kathy	Fear of being alone; need to control
Cruelty	She mocks Tommy's art in front of others	Insecurity expressed as aggression
Keeping Kathy and Tommy apart	She discourages their closeness throughout Part Two	Selfishness, but also fear of losing both of them

Ruth's Redemption

In Part Three, Ruth confesses and apologises:

• She admits she kept Kathy and Tommy apart out of selfishness
• She gives them Madame's address
• She urges them to pursue the deferral
• She dies (completes) shortly after

Examiner's tip: Ruth's confession is a critical moment for debate. Is her redemption genuine? Or is it too late to matter? A grade 9 response might argue: "Ruth's deathbed confession is simultaneously an act of genuine love and a final assertion of control — even in her apology, she dictates the terms of Kathy and Tommy's relationship. Ishiguro presents redemption as real but insufficient; Ruth cannot undo the years she stole from them."

Key Ruth Quotes

Quote	Significance
"We all know it. We're modelled from trash."	Self-hatred; internalised dehumanisation
"I was pretty much ready when I became a donor. It felt right."	Acceptance — or conditioning disguised as acceptance?
Her confession at the boat (Chapter 20)	Remorse, honesty, and the catalyst for the deferral quest

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Miss Lucy

Miss Lucy is a guardian at Hailsham who believes the students should be told the truth about their fate directly.

Miss Lucy's Significance

Aspect	Detail
Role	Guardian (teacher) at Hailsham
Belief	The students should be told the full truth about donations
Key moment	Her "told and not told" speech in Chapter 6
Contradiction	She first tells Tommy his art does not matter, then retracts this
Departure	She is forced out of Hailsham — her approach threatens the institution
Function	Represents the possibility of honesty within a system built on concealment

"The problem, as I see it, is that you've been told and not told. You've been told, but none of you really understand."

Miss Lucy's removal from Hailsham demonstrates that truth-telling is dangerous to oppressive systems. The institution cannot function if its subjects fully understand their exploitation.

Examiner's tip: Miss Lucy and Miss Emily represent opposing philosophies of care. Miss Lucy believes in direct truth; Miss Emily believes in gradual, sheltered revelation. Neither approach changes the clones' fate — which suggests that the problem is not how the truth is delivered but the system itself.

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Miss Emily

Miss Emily is the head guardian of Hailsham and one of its founders. She appears in full only in Chapter 22, when Kathy and Tommy visit her.

What Miss Emily reveals

Revelation	Significance
Hailsham was an experiment in humane treatment of clones	Even "humane" treatment still ends in organ harvesting
The Gallery was designed to prove clones have souls	Society was asked to see clones as human — and refused
Other institutions were "like battery farms"	Hailsham was the exception, not the rule
The deferral does not exist	The clones' last hope is destroyed
Public opinion turned against humane treatment	Scandal (the "Morningdale" affair) ended progressive attitudes

Miss Emily is a deeply ambiguous figure:

Interpretation	Argument
Compassionate idealist	She genuinely tried to improve the clones' lives
Complicit in the system	She never questioned whether cloning itself was wrong — only how clones were treated
Paternalistic	She decided what the clones should and should not know
Self-justifying	Her speech in Chapter 22 reads partly as a defence of her own choices