Eye of the Needle

Percival “Percy” Godliman, a historian who is recruited to work for MI5 by his uncle, is a deuteragonist of The Eye of the Needle. Percy is a highly intelligent man who has been focused primarily on his work since the death of his wife. Exploring the theme of Isolation and Community in Wartime, Percy is isolated from society by choice, separating himself from social engagements to focus on his work in an effort to distract himself from grief over the loss of his wife. After his uncle asks him to join MI5, Percy is waiting out an air raid in a tube station when the Londoners begin singing, and this draws Percy out of his isolation and allows him to feel a sense of community with the people around him. As a result, Percy decides he could be of value in the hunt for spies. As the novel progresses, Percy loses more of his self-imposed isolation and falls in love again. This new romance gives Percy further motivation for hunting German spies, as his new partner’s son will soon be deployed and will be in greater danger if Germany gains accurate information about Allied war plans.

Percy’s role in the hunt for Faber is mostly that of the brain. Percy observes facts and forms conclusions. It was Percy’s idea to check unsolved crimes to identify other victims of Faber’s stiletto, and Percy’s idea to find a former tenant at the same boarding house where Faber lived to identify pictures of Faber. These two lines of investigation are instrumental in identifying and finding Faber. Without Percy’s work with MI5, Faber might not have been identified and his information would have reached Hitler, changing the results of the D-Day invasion. For this reason, Percy is an integral part of the plot while remaining a smaller character within the novel.

Lucy Rose is the protagonist of The Eye of the Needle. The majority of Lucy’s story unfolds separately from the larger events in the plot, but her role moves to center stage when Faber is shipwrecked on Storm Island.

Lucy is a young bride at the beginning of the novel who knows very little about sex despite her belief that she has learned all she needs to know from D. H. Lawrence’s writing. For Lucy, sex is all about romance and love. Her fiancé, David, however, has rigid ideas about sexual propriety that she doesn’t understand. David accuses Lucy of being too aggressive, and this leads Lucy to believe there might be something wrong with her. Therefore, after an accident causes David to lose his legs, and David refuses to engage in intimacy with Lucy, she believes her needs are inappropriate and inconsequential. This leads to tension between Lucy and David and sets Lucy up to become vulnerable to attention from another man.

Despite her unhappiness, Lucy is determined to remain in her marriage. Lucy wants to give a good life to her son, and she believes that requires a traditional marriage. When Henry Baker/Henry Faber arrives on Storm Island, his looks and charm draw her in, allowing her to indulge her secret fantasies for the first time. Later, When Lucy learns that Faber is not who she thought he was, she shows a level of intelligence and strength that allows her to plan an escape without revealing her true feelings to Faber and helps her stay strong until Faber is dead.

Frederick Bloggs is a former Scotland Yard inspector who works with Percy at MI5. Bloggs’s wife is an ambulance driver, rescuing those wounded by the bombings in London. Bloggs believes his wife is a hero, that her courage outshines all other women he’s ever known. When Christine dies in a bombing, Bloggs is devastated, and he feels more motivated than ever to find Faber. Christine’s courage inspires Bloggs and foreshadows the actions of Lucy later in the novel.

Bloggs plays an important role in the hunt for Faber. Where Percy is the brains, Bloggs is the brawn. Bloggs goes out into the field and chases down leads. Bloggs is also the first person from MI5 on Storm Island. Although Bloggs and Percy work throughout the novel to find Faber and stop him from getting information to Germany, it is Lucy who solves the problem without their help. Bloggs arrives too late to help Lucy. Yet, Lucy and Bloggs marry after the war, and Bloggs remains in awe of Lucy’s heroism as illustrated by his telling of the story more than 30 years later to his grandson.