Ralph Seymour

Ralph Ulysses Seymour (1887-1912) was a stockbroker from New York City and the only son of Edgar Seymour and his wife, Clara. Like Louise, Ralph did have a younger sister named Ann, whom he was very fond of. He was also the only known husband of Louise Seymour, who never remarried after he perished on the RMS Titanic on the morning of April 15, 1912. Ralph was a supporting character in Haunted, but he is mentioned at least five different times in The Girl Who Came Home. He also makes two different appearances, but these are hallucinations triggered by Louise's memory. It is these brief glimpses of Ralph that lead to Louise having two nervous breakdowns during the war; the second of which nearly gets her discharged from the army as she finds herself in a German-occupied camp while in France.

Early life
Ralph was born to Edgar and Clara Seymour on August 8, 1887 in Hartford, Conneticut. He was the son of an upper middle class doctor and an elementary school teacher. When he was ten, Ralph's family moved to New York City. While there, Ralph and Ann attended Trinity School, a highly-selective but independent preparatory school in New York City. While Ann went onto attend Vassar College, Ralph went onto study economics at the prestigious Yale University.

After graduating from Yale in 1908, Ralph went to Wall Street to work at the New York City Stock Exchange, where he became one of the brightest young stockbrokers and gained a reputation for spotting problems before they got out of hand. This made him gain the attention of several business tycoons in the area, including J.P. Morgan, who was known in Manhattan for reorganizing failed American business and turning them into successful monopolies. Seeing an opportunity to teach Ralph a few techniques on being a shrewd businessman, Morgan taught Ralph to be more persuasive when it came to business deals, especially when it came to stocks. This lesson eventually led Ralph to understand not only the complexities of Wall Street, but how to deal with it's meanest and most ruthless businessmen.

In the spring of 1910, Ralph went to Dixon Mansion to consult the family's matriarch, Allan Dixon, about investing money into the estate to make it look more modern. During his visit, he met Allan's eldest daughter Louise, a ravishing 17-year-old heiress. Although Louise was simply passing through to grab a book to read, Ralph was unable to take his eyes off of her and knew at that moment he wanted to marry her.

Over the course of a year, Ralph courted Louise. Although she was not interested in him romantically at first, Louise began to slowly fall in love with him. On Christmas Eve in 1910, Ralph asked Allan's permission and blessing to marry Louise, to which Allan agreed. Although they initially planned to get married in April 1911, Ralph waited until Louise had graduated from Bridgeton Preparatory School before marrying her. On June 24, 1911, Ralph and Louise were married at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. Afterwards, they traveled to Paris for a three week honeymoon.

In January of 1912, Ralph and Louise took a brief vacation to St. Petersburg, Russia, where they stayed for three months. They eventually made their way to Southampton, England, where they met up with Louise's parents in April of that same year. They stayed there until they were scheduled to board the RMS Titanic the following week to return to America.

Haunted
Ralph is first seen at Southampton, having a jovial conversation with Allan Dixon and waiting to board with the rest of the people in his party. Soon afterward, Chloe Dixon meets him shortly after being introduced to Louise Seymour by Allan Dixon. Although Ralph is one of the few people who actually doubt the validity in Chloe's story she fabricated to conceal her real identity, he decides to believe it so that he doesn't draw attention to himself. It isn't until Ralph introduces Chloe and Louise to a man named Edward Gruel that he becomes blissfully unaware of the relationship that proves to be volatile between Edward and Chloe.

Ralph isn't seen again until well after the Titanic had started to sink once it hit the iceberg. He tries to meet up with Louise, with Chloe and Jack following closely behind her. However, he is halted from getting into a lifeboat due to the women-and-children first protocol by 2nd Officer Charles Lightoller, who tells him that he can't get in as they are not ready to board the mail passengers.

When the Titanic rose vertically in the air, Ralph remained holding onto the railing for dear life. However, the pressure caused by the people slipping several stories down to where the submerged bow was, causes Ralph to look down when he hears people screaming for help. Moments before his death, he looks out to Louise, who is in the same lifeboat as Molly Brown and mouths the words "I love you" before he too falls several stories to his death.

The Girl Who Came Home
Ralph is mentioned throughout the course of Louise's diary as the aftermath of his untimely death on the Titanic truly devastated her. It isn't until a three months into the start of World War 1 that Ralph is mentioned by Louise for the first time when Matthew Chapel notices her wedding band is still on her finger while bandaging a wounded soldier. He is mentioned two more times when Louise dreams about happier times with him only for those dreams to turn into a nightmare by turning into a corpse-like person who has the characteristics of hypothermia. These dreams cause Louise to develop dysthymia, which is a mild form of depression and something she struggles to cope with throughout the remainder of the war.

Physical Appearance
Ralph was tall, standing at least 6'0", and had dark brown hair that was slightly wavy up top. He was muscular but lean, unlike Jack who has a lean figure reminiscent of a ballet dancer or a professional swimmer. He had striking blue eyes that would turn a bright shade of jade green when his eyes reacted to sunlight or whenever he was upset.

Ralph also had a widow's peak and he also had a cleft in his chin. These traits largely went unnoticed by everyone unless an individual pointed them out in passing, but when Chloe noticed these traits, she concluded them to be Ralph's most distinctive feature at the time, much like how her and Louise share the same high cheekbones.

Personality and Traits
Ralph was sometimes passed of as cold, partially due to the analytical mindset he grew accustomed with while working as a stockbroker on Wall Street. However, he was quite friendly around most people; although he was not always sentimental when it came to preserving romantic relationships, especially with his wife, Louise. This was apparent when his marriage with her imploded due to the lack of empathy he expressed towards Chloe during her engagement to Edward Gruel, a tumultuous relationship Chloe escaped from by falling in love with Jack Flynn.

Because of this flaw, Ralph was seen by Louise to be a "poor judge of character." He was never much of a reader or someone who had a good heart, and often made bad financial decisions that eventually drove Louise's father to drain her of almost all of her inheritance money to pay off a bad investment.

Skills and abilities
Prior to meeting the Dixon family, Ralph had a promising future as a broker on Wall Street. However, he was very unhappy with this occupation and left the stock market to pursue a career in opening his own business, which he struggled to keep open because of his lack of motivation and attentiveness to inform people if they were not spending their money properly. After boarding the Titanic, Ralph sought out and hired a young man named Edward Gruel to work for Ralph's failing loan business once the ship docked in New York. Throughout the course of the voyage, Louise was distraught over Edward's snide comments about her choice of fashion, book tastes, and appreciation for modernist art.

Even though Ralph's calling was in the world of business, he was able to express a brief interest in psychology and was a fan of Sigmund Freud's theories, mainly on the subject of dreams or hysteria. This, coupled with his strong opinions on how women should live their lives, made him be seen as an enemy towards the women in his life, particularly his sister Ann, who prior to her death, stated that her brother was unapologetically cruel in the most subtle way.

Possessions

 * Gold wedding band: Ralph wore a simple gold wedding band after he married Louise Dixon in June 1911. He never took it off as he felt that it would be a great injustice to Louise to see him without it. When he perished on the Titanic, Ralph's wedding band was still on his finger.
 * Silver pocket watch: As a wedding gift, Ralph's younger sister Ann gave him a beautiful sterling silver pocket watch from Tiffany & Co. The watch featured an open face, mother of pearl face, and had his initials "R.S." engraved on the back of the watch.

Relationships
Ralph was married to Louise Dixon. He considered Allan and Cornelia Dixon to be his adopted parents and saw both Marjorie Dixon and Chloe Dixon as his adopted sisters-in-law, though Chloe hardly knew Ralph very well to consider him that way. Even though he died several years before Chloe gave birth to her daughter, Emma, it would have been safe to assume that Ralph was Emma's adopted uncle.

Appearances

 * Haunted  (First appearance)
 * The Girl Who Came Home  (Mentioned only)
 * The Timekeeper's Saga Official Companion Guide  (Mentioned only)

Etymology

 * Ralph: is an old Norse name derived from the compound name Rathulfr which means "wolf counsel".
 * Ulysses: is a Greek name with Latin origins. In Latin, it is a variant of the Greek name Odysseus. The name was born out of mythology, notably by Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey.
 * Seymour: an English name hailing from Normandy. It is a habitational name that refers to St. Maur, a town in France. Although no one is really quite sure what it actually means, most meanings give the name having an English meaning of "mighty at sea".

Trivia

 * Ralph's birthday is August, and he's the only character to be born in that month.
 * The Seymours were a new money family, which is a polar opposite to the Dixons, who were an old money family.
 * In early drafts, Ralph's original last name was McCaffrey.
 * Ralph is ambidextrous.
 * Although it's never stated in Haunted, Lange believes Ralph only married Louise to simply gain a higher socioeconomic status, which was a reason for many upper-class marriages in the early 20th century.
 * Ralph's strong opnion on how women should live their lives were not uncommon during his time. Prior to women earning the right to vote, it was not unusual for men like Ralph to assume women should work in the home instead of going to school or getting a job.
 * Ralph would be considered a terrible businessmen by at least today's standards. When he owned his loan business, he swindled people so he could get more money from them.
 * In the Timekeeper Saga Official Companion Guide, Christine Lange states that Ralph's character profile was partially inspired by the attractive Matthew Crawley from Downton Abbey, but he had the passive-agressive personality of Cal Hockley from James Cameron's 1997 movie, Titanic.
 * His favorite color is orange.
 * Ralph was the person that instituted that hor d'oevres be served before big holiday dinners every year. This was to appease very peckish guests who complained they were hungry before eating dinner at Dixon Mansion over the holidays. The family liked the idea so much and it's been a tradition ever since 1910, the year Ralph made the suggestion to Louise's mother, Cornelia.
 * Ralph surprised Louise with tickets to go see Swan Lake.