Beautiful Ruins

Dee Moray/Debra Moore-Bender is the novel’s “female lead” (despite only being a supporting actress) and Pasquale’s love interest. Born Debra Moore and hailing from Seattle, Washington, she is cast as the handmaiden to Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra in the film Cleopatra. While working as a Hollywood actress, she goes by Dee Moray though she changes her name back to Debra Moore once she returns from Europe and leaves her dreams of acting behind. By 1978, Debra sees Dee as a separate entity from herself “as if she’d cleaved herself in two” (211). Walter describes her as being “nearly six feet” (8) tall, slender, and blonde with “the oversized features of a born actress” (286).

Dee falls in love with Richard Burton on the set of Cleopatra, and the two have an affair, which results in her becoming pregnant with his child. With the help of Dr. Crane, Michael Deane manipulates Dee into believing her pregnancy symptoms are cancer symptoms and sends her to Porto Vergogna, where she meets Pasquale and waits for Richard Burton. During this period, she reflects on her mortality and makes the decision to rise above her vanity and superficiality. She tells Pasquale that she wants to live authentically by “refusing to live in the eyes of others” (56). She expresses distaste for Hollywood’s dark side throughout the novel and easily adjusts to life as Debra Moore-Bender the high school drama and Italian teacher once she returns to Seattle. However, she regrets her decision to not go through with the abortion and remains devoted to Richard Burton for decades as she watches Richard Burtons films and “[daydreams] herself into supporting roles” (211). Eventually, she concludes that the life she has with Pat is the best life she will get, and her regrets abate. She continues to confront her mortality once she truly contracts cancer in her later years. Her conflicting desires and the changes she undergoes make her both a round and dynamic character.

Debra marries Alvis Bender and raises her son Pasquale “Pat” Bender. She admires Pasquale, and the novel’s ending suggests that there is a chance that she becomes romantically involved with him.

Conniving and selfish, Michael Deane is the novel’s antagonist. He starts off working in publicity as a “special production assistant” (11) for 20th Century Fox Pictures in the 1960s and becomes a famous film producer known as “the Deane of Hollywood” by the 2000s. He rises to prominence as a producer in the 1980s but spends the 2000s “in a terrible slump, with nothing resembling a hit in almost a decade” (68) until he produces the hit show Hookbook. His intense fear of becoming obsolete and powerless in Hollywood is his defining trait, and it pushes him to trick, exploit, and lie to people to stay on top of the Hollywood hierarchy. However, his manipulation and deception tactics appear far earlier than in the 2000s. In fact, he displays a ruthless, amoral disposition as early as 1960s when he “broke up two marriages, and faked [Dee’s] illness, and bribed her to get an abortion” (254).

A habitual liar and manipulator, Michael Deane convinces Claire, Shane, and Pasquale that he feels regret for his actions and 1962 and has good intentions for helping Pasquale find Debra. In reality, he only wants to help Pasquale locate Debra so he can appear to have “at least tried to do the right thing” (254) and buy the rights to Pat’s biography for the sake of exploiting him. He agrees to leave Dee and Pat alone at the end of the novel but mostly like just because he wants Claire to stay continue working for him. At his core, Michael Deane is not a man who feels remorse for his actions, and he is driven to stay on top and provide his audience with the scandal and debauchery they desire.

Walter always refers to Michael Deane by his full name except in a few sections where the narrator channels Claire’s inner monologue. The name “Deane” is a homophone of the word “dean,” which refers to an authoritative figure (and calls to mind 20th-century film heartthrob James Dean). By calling constantly him Michael Deane, Walter emphasizes Michael Deane’s authority and prominence.

In the 2010s, Michael Deane looks like an old man with “the face of a nine-year-old Filipino girl” (93) due to his heavy regimen of facials and cosmetic surgery. Michael Deane’s appearance speaks to an obsession with staying young (in order to be relevant) and beautiful (in order to cover up his inner ugliness). Despite his constant remolding, he resembles “a man constructed of wax, or perhaps prematurely embalmed” (93), which emphasizes the fact that Michael Deane is fake (in the sense of being insincere and superficial) and morally dead.

Claire Silver is Michael Deane’s chief development assistant. Though previously enrolled in a film doctoral program, Claire “tends to Michael’s whims” (16) by acting as a personal assistant and secretary. While Michael Deane is interested in producing low-brow, sordid TV shows, Claire wants to make high-brow films. According to Michael Deane, Claire is plagued by “world-weary, faux cynicism” (92). She acquires her cynical outlook on life through her experiences working in Hollywood and learning the rules of film production. This outlook is most evident in her doubt that Michael Deane will approve of a “an effects-driven period thriller about cowboy cannibals” (147) like Shane’s Donner!. Years of seeing films turned down lead her to the grim conclusion that “film—her first love—is dead” (24).

An anal-retentive perfectionist, Claire “anguishes over everything, is constantly measuring herself, her expectations, her progress, her sense of worth” (92). She longs for order, and the job at the Museum of American Screen Culture interests her since “the dead perfection of museum art” provides a sense of harmony and structure (331). However, she grows to “embrace the sweet lovely mess that is real life” by the end of the novel.

She spends the novel conflicted over whether she should leave Daryl and quit her job. At first, she thinks that she must do both things. After watching “Front Man,” she realizes that her love for Daryl cannot be explained or cast away. She knows that Michael Deane is right in saying, “We want what we want” (244). Her new outlook on love leads her to stay with Daryl. She also stays on at Michael Deane Productions and receives a promotion to the rank of chief development executive. She can be classified as a dynamic character since she changes her mind about what she wants out of life.

Shane Wheeler is an unsuccessful writer from Beaverton, Oregon who seeks redemption as a screenwriter. He is “tall, lean, and a little feral-looking” (19), and he has a tattoo of the word “act” etched into his forearm as a reference to the quote “Act as if ye have faith and it will be given to you” (19). His early years are marked by success, as he earns letters as a distance runner, earns A’s throughout high school, gets accepted into Cal-Berkley, and earns an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arizona (20). Everything in his early years comes easy to him because he assumes and acts as if they will. His “outlook fed by years of episodic TV, by encouraging teachers and counselors, by science-fair ribbons, participant medals, and soccer and basketball trophies” (19-20) instills a sense of entitlement in him. He arrogantly believes he will succeed no matter the situation. However, his outlook fails him once he enters the real world of adulthood. Shane is divorced from his ex-wife Shaundra and moves back in with his parents by the start of Beautiful Ruins.

When he first lands in Hollywood, Shane lacks the cocky confidence of his youth. He hopes his pitch will be successful, but his past failures leave him slightly uncertain. Inspired by Michael Deane’s book and Shaundra’s brutal honesty, he manages to recover his confidence shortly before pitching Donner! He continues to grow as a character as the novel progresses. Shane breaks down after the play and recognizing the parallels between him in Pat. He notes, “I think I’ve wasted my life” (298), and he wants to change. Since he has an epiphany and undergoes a change like Claire, Shane is a dynamic character.

Shane fits the failed artist and lovable loser archetypes.

Pat Bender is Dee/Debra and Richard Burton’s rebellious biological son and Alvis’s adopted son. Once a front man for the Reticents, Pat fades into obscurity by 2008. Endowed with narcissism and a desire to be seen and adored, he desires fame more than anything for most of his life and assumes that he will be a big star. After several years of playing small, unsuccessful musical comedy shows, he makes a last vie for triumph by going on tour in the UK. However, his dreams crumble after he angers his promoter and plays too many lackluster shows. Left homeless on the streets of Edinburgh and London, he comes to the realization that “he [is] ready to stop trying to matter; he [is] ready to simply live” (170). Years after returning to the United States, he fights off his ego and desire for recognition by engaging in hard labor. He can proudly say that “he’ll take unknown over failure at this point” (333).

At first, he displays manipulative and self-destructive tendencies: stealing, lying, having affairs, and abusing substances. However, his time as a vagrant changes him and makes him a more moral individual. He comes back to Lydia to make amends for his previous selfishness. In the 2010s, he is a loving boyfriend and takes care of his dying mother.

Pat closely resembles his biological father but serves as an improvement upon him. He has the same build, eyes, and charisma and engages in similar self-destructive behaviors. However, they differ in their fates: Richard Burton drinks himself to death while Pat manages to break out of the Jenkins family cycle of drinking, mend his ways, and go on to live a happy life.

Pat is a dynamic character overall and an archetypal failed artist for part of Beautiful Ruins.

Alvis Bender is a failed writer and automobile salesman from Madison, Michigan. In addition, he is Dee/Debra’s husband, Pat’s adoptive father, and Pasquale’s close friend and mentor. Fluent in Italian, Alvis serves in the United States Army as a translator and interrogates Italian peasants. In his manuscript, he “[portrays himself] as lacking in valor” (83). Unexperienced in combat and intent on shooting himself to get out of the war, he does not resemble the idealized WWII war hero.

Upon returning from the war, he becomes a severe alcoholic (his alcoholism is ironic given his last name: Bender). He feels intense misery and “just no longer [sees] the point” (223). He seeks to alleviate his pain by returning to Italy to write The Smile of Heaven, but he procrastinates and only writes one chapter. He comes to the realization that he only needs to write one chapter after Dee/Debra suggests, “Well…maybe that’s all there is” (275). He gives up finishing his book and becomes more serious about selling Chevrolets. This change in desire and goals solidifies him as a dynamic character.

Though he lacks the bravado of a war hero, Alvis has a tender, “Galahad-like heart” (83). He does not plan on having sex with Maria and wants to be genuinely genial toward her. He expresses deep sadness when he realizes Maria only gives him a hand job because she thinks Alvis might rape her. In the late 1960s, he dotes on Debra by buying her gifts and encouraging her to follow her dreams. He even adopts Pat and treats him like a biological son.

Prone to witty quips, he sometimes fits the jester archetype.