character sketch of persome.[5 marks]
Answers
Persome, though the Bishop’s sister, is poles apart from her brother. She has been portrayed as an ordinary human being who is insensitive to the spiritual values of mercy, charity, benevolence, forbearance, and sympathy. Actually her ordinariness sets of the Bishop’s magnanimity and grandeur.
From the opening scene we see her behaving harshly with Marie. She scolds her for being slow in her work. She does not want her brother to be so generous, charitable, and helpful to the people of his parish and other people also. She feels people take undue advantage of his charitable and generous nature. She gets angry at the bishop when she comes to know his act of selling the silver salt-cellars to help Mere Gringoire, an old distressed woman. Similarly, she does not want her brother to give Marie his comforter when he offers it to Marie to keep warm in the bitter cold outside. Likewise her reactions when the convict breaks in to the bishop’s cottage are quite ordinary.
However, as a sister she is quite caring and loving. She really cares for her brother’s comfort and well-being. She knows he is the ‘best man in all France’.