Mr. Charrington is the seemingly elderly, kind proprietor of the antique shop in the proleterian district where Winston buys his empty diary, pens, and a glass paperweight. Because he keeps mementos of Old England and snippets of poetry in his shop, Winston feels a great sense of trust and curiosity toward him. When he rents out the room above his shop as a secret meeting place, he convinces Winston that he is offering a safe haven of nostalgia, isolated from Oceanian society. However, in the middle of the novel, he reappears on the scene as an officer of the Thought Police. All his feigned shyness, gentle accent, and elderly persona were merely a performance played flawlessly to trap secret rebels like Winston. Upon the moment of capture, he emerges with his true identity and completes his duty without showing any sign of pity for his victims.
Where he comes from is not stated by the novel, but it is clear that he has been running this shop for years and is one of the cold-blooded, disguised agents of the Thought Police. Statements like 'he's been running it for thirty years' are his own fabrication.
Initially, a sixty-year-old, frail, hunched man with swarthy, leather-like wrinkled skin. When the betrayal is revealed, he transforms into a 35-year-old, cold, uniformed, cutthroat secret police officer with black hair and erased lines.
Winston Smith
He is a prey caught in his web. While Winston was buying his trust, he was actually signing his own death warrant.