The Weight of Ink

Aaron Levy is the second protagonist in the novel’s modern plotline. He is a young American Jewish man who is pursuing his doctorate at the same London university where Helen works. Aaron’s dissertation research is focused on Shakespeare’s connection to the early modern Jewish community in London, but he is hired to work as Helen’s assistant. Aaron becomes fascinated by the project and equally committed to understanding Ester’s life and experiences. While Aaron and Helen have a challenging relationship at first, he gradually earns her respect because of his devotion to the research project and his more playful approach to life.

Aaron is somewhat aimless and melancholy; the research project provides him with an important anchor and sense of purpose. When he is not researching the documents, Aaron feels unmotivated about his doctoral research and questions his choice of topic. He also pines for a woman named Marisa, with whom he had a brief romantic relationship before the start of the novel’s primary plot. Aaron is conflicted about his Jewish identity; he sometimes feels protective of the documents because of their connection to Jewish history, but he also wants to see himself as someone with agency and the ability to construct his own future. Aaron can be entitled and self-indulgent: He sometimes acts in self-destructive ways and has not always treated women respectfully.

Over the course of the novel, Aaron matures due to both internal and external events. He learns from Helen and the other academics who assist with their project, particularly the two women named Patricia who work at the rare books library. Although at first he finds them cold and humorless, Aaron comes to respect their devotion, consistency, and fortitude. Learning about Ester’s life also gives Aaron a greater appreciation of the sacrifices individuals have made to pursue things that are readily available to him. Due to these experiences, Aaron becomes more patient, mature, and self-aware about his own privilege. These factors become especially important when Aaron unexpectedly learns that Marisa is pregnant with his child. He realizes that he wants to become a man who is mature enough to be a good father and live up to his responsibilities.

Ester Velasquez is the protagonist of the historical plotline. She is a Jewish woman who lives in the second half of the 1600s. Ester grows up in Amsterdam, but spends most of her life in England, first in central London and then later in Richmond. Ester is orphaned at a young age and loses her only sibling shortly thereafter. She forms a secondary family with Rabbi Mendes and lives with him for years; after the rabbi’s death, Ester eventually marries a man named Alvaro HaLevy and lives with him in Richmond until her death decades later.

Ester is extremely intelligent, and interested in intellectual pursuits. This trait becomes the defining factor of her identity and the primary motivation for many of her choices. Although few details are given about her physical appearance, it is sometimes hinted that Ester is quite striking, since her mother was famously beautiful and many people comment that Ester resembles her.

Ester is guarded, secretive, and cautious. Due to her difficult and often lonely life, she does not trust people readily, and finds it hard to open up. Even though Ester loves and admires Rabbi Mendes, she keeps secrets from him because he cannot condone her desires to learn and study. She is also hesitant to trust characters like Manuel HaLevy and Mary da Costa Mendes because she thinks they cannot understand her. In particular, Ester is cautious about love and desire because she thinks that a woman loses her agency when she falls in love. Ester’s sense that she is different from other people sometimes makes her arrogant or unable to appreciate their experiences. For example, she judges Mary for recklessly following her heart, and she sees Rivka as someone who is conventional and uninterested in ideas.

Over the course of the novel, Ester significantly changes the way that she sees the world and the compromises she is willing to make. At the same time, she remains true to her core beliefs and values. At first, Ester is very resistant to, and mistrustful of, love and desire, but she eventually falls in love with John Tilbury, and even initiates sex with him. This experience, as well as her dangerous illness, makes Ester realize that desire is at the heart of all life and experience, and she incorporates this idea into her philosophy.

Since she realizes that she wants to survive above all else, Ester also pursues the idea of marriage with Alvaro. For a long time, she rejects the idea of marriage altogether, but she eventually concedes that if she wants to be secure, she will need a husband. While Ester’s marriage is still unconventional, her decision to accept a husband shows that she transforms from someone who thinks in a rigid way into someone who is willing to compromise in order to have the life she wants.