A Man Who Had No Eyes By Mackinlay Kantor

There are two major characters in “A Man Who Had No Eyes” by MacKinlay Kantor, both with extremely different personalities. One of the characters is Markwardt, a beggar who displays negative character traits throughout the short story. Markwardt shows to be devious, pessimistic and abrasive through his behaviors and actions. First Markwardt is devious. From page 2, “there might be more half dollars in Mr. Parsons’s pocket” is thought by Markwardt. He decides to tell Mr. Parsons his practiced sob story about how he lost his sight, meanwhile twisting the story around and lying. He told this story to several others and attempts to deceive Mr. Parsons as well to obtain money. This is dishonest and unfair of Markwardt. Second Markwardt is pessimistic.