There three main characters in the story: Johnsy, Sue and Mr. Behrman. To describe them the author uses a lot of colorful and vivid stylistic devices.

 Johnsy is one of the protagonists. Her image is created through direct and indirect characterization. Directly the author tells us that she is “a little woman with blood thinned”, “very ill and weak”. He uses simile to point out her lightness and fragility and compares her to a leaf: “light and fragile as a leaf”. Judging from her actions we got to know that Johnsy is rather powerless, she is depicted as a weak and unconfident person who can easily lose any hope and just abandon herself to despair.  Johnsy imagined that she like that ivy leaf would soon “fall off the tree of the life”.     

But her friend Sue is strong enough. Judging from her actions we got to know that she is confident, powerful and self-assured person. Sue is depicted as a real friend in the story. She didn’t give up Johnsy for a minute, instead she tried to help her to get well and to make her believe in herself and forget the silly idea about the last leaf. Sue constantly showed her love, support and care towards Johnsy. She called her “my sick child”, cooked broth and bought port wine for her.

Mr. Behrman is the third protagonist of the story. Though he appeared only once and spoke twice in the whole story, his role is important in the extreme. His image is created through direct, indirect and speech characterization. Directly we got to know that “old Behrman was a painter who lived on the ground floor beneath them. He was past sixty and had a Michael Angelo's Moses beard curling down from the head of a satyr along with the body of an imp. Behrman was a failure in art. Forty years he had wielded the brush without getting near enough to touch the hem of his Mistress's robe. He had been always about to paint a masterpiece, but had never yet begun it. For several years he had painted nothing except now and then a daub in the line of commerce or advertising. He earned a little by serving as a model to those young artists in the colony who could not pay the price of a professional. He drank gin to excess”. Judging from his way of speaking we can assume his German roots: “Is dere people in de world mit der foolishness to die because leafs dey drop off from a confounded vine? I haf not heard of such a thing...”. Mr. Behrman is depicted as loving and helpful person who is ready to give his life to help somebody. Describing Mr. Behrman the author uses such vivid epithets as “a fierce little old man”, “a horrid old - old flibbertigibbet”.

At the beginning of the story the author introduces another character that takes part in the action – Mr. Pneumonia.  In this case the author uses a very strong stylistic device as personification. He describes it with the help of epithets: “unseen stranger”, “old gentleman”, “the red-fisted, short-breathed old duffer”, “with his icy fingers” and metaphors:  “stalked about the colony”, “touching one here and there with its icy fingers”.