Character Relationship Map: Spider

Characters

• Spider (played by Ralph Fiennes) — protagonist

  Schizophrenic protagonist recently released from a mental institution. He navigates daily life in a halfway house while piecing together traumatic childhood memories. His reality is fractured by delus...

• Yvonne / Mrs. Cleg (played by Miranda Richardson) — supporting

  Dual representation of Spider's childhood trauma. She was his biological mother, murdered by Bill, and his father's mistress who moved into their home. Spider perceives her as both figures, only to re...

• Bill Cleg (played by Gabriel Byrne) — supporting

  The protagonist's unfaithful father. He appears in Spider's fragmented memories as the man who murders his wife with a spade, acting with the passive support of his mistress during their childhood in...

• Mrs. Wilkinson (played by Lynn Redgrave) — supporting

  The strict landlady of the halfway house housing the protagonist. Her presence acts as a trigger for Spider's hallucinations, as he alternately perceives her as the mistress Yvonne. She eventually rep...

• Spider Boy (played by Bradley Hall) — supporting

Canonical Relationships

Family, romantic, and professional connections based on plot evidence.

• Mrs. Wilkinson → Yvonne / Mrs. Cleg (Meta Hallucinatory Double) — The landlady becomes visually and psychologically associated with Spider's maternal trauma.

  Spider sees Mrs. Wilkinson as Yvonne, and the two identities alternate during his final intrusion into Wilkinson's room.

• Spider → Mrs. Wilkinson (Professional Landlord And Tenant) — Mrs. Wilkinson controls Spider's accommodation in the halfway house.

  Mrs. Wilkinson runs the halfway house where Spider is given a room after leaving the mental institution.

• Spider → Spider Boy (Temporal Past Self) — Spider's adult investigation is structured around recovering and reinterpreting his childhood memories.

  The adult Spider relives events from his childhood, and Spider Boy represents the child who witnessed the remembered family trauma.

• Spider Boy → Yvonne / Mrs. Cleg (Family Child And Mother) — The maternal identity is the source of Spider Boy's later psychological confusion.

  Spider Boy sees the woman identified as his mother murdered, after which Yvonne is presented to him as his mother.

• Spider Boy → Bill Cleg (Family Son) — The childhood version of Spider is Bill's son and observer of the family tragedy.

  Spider Boy witnesses Bill murder his mother during the remembered events of Spider's childhood.

• Yvonne / Mrs. Cleg → Spider (Family Mother) — Spider's relationship with his mother is obscured by his fractured perception of Yvonne.

  The plot identifies Mrs. Cleg as Spider's biological mother, whose death becomes the central traumatic event in his memories.

• Bill Cleg → Yvonne / Mrs. Cleg (Romantic Husband And Mistress) — Their affair disrupts the Cleg family and becomes part of Spider's fragmented recollection.

  Bill is described as unfaithful, while Yvonne is identified as his mistress. Yvonne later moves into the family home and is presented as Spider's moth...

• Spider → Bill Cleg (Family Son) — Bill is Spider's unfaithful father and a central figure in his traumatic memories.

  Spider's childhood memories identify Bill Cleg as his father, living with Spider and his mother in 1950s London.

Story Analysis

A schizophrenic man's fractured memories transform childhood trauma into a confusing struggle between reality, guilt, and delusion.

Plot Progression

1. A Room After Release — Spider leaves the mental institution and enters Mrs. Wilkinson's halfway house. His wandering through the surrounding area begins to awaken fragmented childhood memories.
2. The Family Wound — Spider's memories return to 1950s London, where Bill's infidelity and the family household emerge. The remembered murder of Spider's mother becomes the first major traumatic rupture.
3. Webs And False Faces — Spider constructs a web from yarn and steals Wilkinson's keys. He increasingly perceives his landlady as Yvonne, blending present reality with the childhood trauma.
4. The Memory Turns — Spider recalls a gas-based killing that appears to involve Yvonne. The apparent victim changes into Mrs. Cleg, suggesting that Yvonne was a delusion.
5. Back Into Confinement — Spider enters Wilkinson's room and nearly attacks her while seeing Yvonne. After Wilkinson reports him, Spider is returned to the asylum.