Tipping the Velvet

Kitty is both Nan’s first real love interest and the architect of Nan’s move to London. Kitty is an orphan raised by her grandmother. Kitty worked as a general singer and dancer before hitting her stride as a male impersonator. Kitty is the only love interest who appears in all three parts of the novel; Nan’s relationship to Kitty throughout the novel tracks Nan’s development. While Kitty describes their relationship first as a kind of chaste and sisterly love, she soon becomes jealous of Nan and consummates their relationship. Kitty tells Nan that she has loved girls before, but not like she loves Nan. Nan and Kitty are foils for the theme of Authentic Lives and Coming Out: Kitty believes her queer desires can be hidden under a normative heterosexual life with a man, while Nan has no interest in hiding her desires, even if she struggles to embrace herself.

After her affair with Walter and subsequent marriage, she and Walter perform as father and son. Disgusted and frightened by Nan’s desire to live an open life as a lesbian, Kitty embodies the fear and uncertainty associated with closeted life. A selfish character, Kitty yearns to be a star and gain normative security. Her marriage to Walter appears designed to give both. Kitty is a static character who does not change. She persists in trying to both have and hide her relationship with Nan, even when her marriage to Walter makes her unhappy.

Diana, Nan’s second love interest, is an antagonist for Nan and extreme foil to Kitty. Uncaring and daring, Diana doesn’t pay attention to social mores and traditional morality. Diana is 38 when she meets Nan. Diana lives in St. John’s Wood, a luxurious neighborhood in London even in the current day. Diana is a widow who keeps no sign of her deceased husband in her mansion. Diana introduces Nan to pleasure, cruelty, luxury, and unapologetic claiming of her queer identity. Diana buys Nan expensive men’s clothes, a wristwatch, and extravagant accessories. Diana’s gifts come with a price, as she controls Nan’s behavior and curtails her freedom.

Diana is a member of the Cavendish Club, a private club for wealthy lesbians. Diana ruffles feathers there when she introduces Nan, dressed in men’s clothing. The rejection by Diana’s peers reflects the real-world stigma that masculine and genderqueer lesbians often face from more traditionally feminine lesbians. Diana flaunts the Cavendish Club’s rules on men’s clothing at Nan’s expense.

During her last appearance in Part 2, Diana dresses as the goddess Diana, the goddess of the hunt and chastity in Roman mythology. Diana’s association with the goddess symbolizes her hunting of vulnerable people on the margins of society, embodying the importance of Class and Society in Victorian England. She maintains a household run by women, especially those who face ostracization because of their sexuality or gender, like her maid, Blake/Zena. Diana is a static character who helps propel Nan’s development, forcing Nan to confront her morals and the extreme opposite of Kitty’s behavior.

Florence is Nan’s third major love interest and a dynamic character. Florence has three brothers and a younger sister. She lives with her brother, Ralph, and Janet, her younger sister, often visits. One of her brothers lives in Canada, and the other works as a butcher. Ralph and Florence live in their parents’ house. Both are ardent socialists, helping their neighbors constantly. When she first appears, Florence sees Nan dressed as a man and invites her to a public talk on women’s rights and labor movements. Nan fails to show up, having been captured by Diana. Florence meets Lillian at this lecture, who dies after giving birth to Cyril, the baby Florence and Ralph raise as their own.

Florence first appears young and full of energy, attending a get-together with her friends. When Nan sees her again in Part 3, Florence appears careworn and tired, which Nan later recognizes as grief. Florence loved Lillian, as Nan loved Kitty, and they soon discover their similar backgrounds. After eating oysters that Nan makes, Florence and Nan soon become lovers. While they share similar histories and desires, Florence dedicates her life to charity and political change. Nan complains about her focus on socialist work initially, only seeing Florence as her true love and future after reciting Ralph’s speech and rejecting Kitty at the novel’s conclusion. As a person who thinks of others and their suffering, Florence is a foil to Diana’s extreme wealth and cruelty.

Zena is one of Diana’s servants and, briefly, one of Nan’s love interests. Zena was plucked from a girls’ reformatory by Diana. Little is known of her family. As a maid for a previous mistress of a great house in London, Zena had a relationship with another maid, Agnes. Sent away, Agnes continued to write and meet Zena, until another maid discovered their relationship and used it to coerce Zena into a romantic relationship. Rebuffed, the maid accused Zena of assault.

At the end of Part 2, Nan defends Zena against Diana and her friends as they attempt to sexually assault Zena. Briefly lovers, Zena and Nan are caught by Diana and cast out. Zena is a dynamic character who becomes more vocal and self-assured after leaving Diana’s house. After moving to and back from Australia, Zena meets Nan at the socialist rally. By then, Zena has a girlfriend and is more confident.

Ralph, Florence’s brother, only appears in Part 3. Nan originally mistakes him for Florence’s husband when she first sees him at Florence’s house. Like Florence, he cares for his neighbors’ well-being and accepts his sister’s identity and desires without question, serving as foil to Alice, Nan’s sister. Shy in front of crowds, as opposed to Nan, he tries to give a speech on the reasons for socialism at the rally in Part 3. A static character, he exudes kindness to Nan from his first appearance, giving her money for a hotel room and, later, accepting her as part of their family. Florence notes that he has trouble keeping a girlfriend, saying, “Girls don’t seem to care for him” (433), and his last girlfriend left him for a “boxer” (433), someone more outwardly and traditionally masculine. Florence’s lesbian friends, however, are “half in-love with him” (433). Ralph is non-traditionally masculine, in keeping with his non-normative family unit.

Nan’s sister, Alice, and Nan appear close at the beginning of the novel. Her boyfriend at the time, Tony, helps Nan get better seats at the Palace Theater in Canterbury, and she and Nan see Kitty’s act together. Nan imagines her as a confidante, writing Alice a letter confessing her feelings for Kitty. Alice’s response drips with disdain, as she tells Nan not to speak more to her about her relationship or identity. She detests Nan’s change and her coming out. Alice is a static character, embodying the distaste for queer feelings and relationships that Kitty fears.