Character guide

Sara Crewe

major

Also known as Sara, Little Sara, Princess Sara, Mademoiselle Sara

Sara arrives at Miss Minchin's seminary rich, French-fluent, and adored, her father's idolatry making her both envied and beloved. Her defining tension is the promise she made to bear separation bravely, a discipline she tests when kindness to the scullery maid Becky becomes a secret friendship. Her habit of "supposing" — treating dolls as living, hunger as conquerable — is what the story's early arc quietly builds toward, making her the moral center everyone else orbits.

Miss Minchin

major

Also known as Miss Amelia, Amelia, the elder Miss Minchin

Miss Minchin runs her select seminary as a business, and Sara is her showpiece — paraded before visiting parents as proof of the school's grandeur. When the money vanishes, her calculation hardens into something colder: she tells Miss Amelia the girl "must begin as she is to go on," stripping Sara's room, seat, and lessons in a single morning. Her refusal to soften, even as Sara works harder and speaks less, makes her the story's engine of injustice.

Becky

supporting

Also known as Rebecca

Becky exists at the bottom of the seminary's hierarchy, invisible to Miss Minchin and used to being ordered about. Her friendship with Sara — begun when she woke terrified in a comfortable chair — survives on snatched moments, whispered installments of stories, and treats tucked into the tape-bound pocket under her skirt. Her matter-of-fact talk of rats and cockroaches gives the novel its sharpest glimpse of what poverty actually feels like, and her loyalty becomes the measure of Sara's true nobility.

Ermengarde St. John

supporting

Also known as Ermengarde

Ermengarde is the school's dunce, embarrassed by her own slowness and by a father who prefers his library to her company. Sara's tales of India and dolls who walk when humans leave the room open a door in her imagination she never knew existed. When Sara asks whether she loves her father more than anything, Ermengarde's stammered confession exposes the emotional distance in her own home — and makes her quiet loyalty to Sara feel earned rather than sentimental.

Lottie Legh

supporting

Also known as Lottie

Lottie is the baby of Miss Minchin's establishment, prone to tantrums and accustomed to being the center of any room she enters. Sara's willingness to play mother — to soothe her, invent for her, and treat her as a person rather than a nuisance — earns a fierce, possessive devotion. Her small presence matters because it shows Sara's kindness operating without any reward, and because Lottie's joy at Sara's birthday party makes the later loss of that world land harder.

Mr. Carrisford

major

Also known as Carrisford, the Indian gentleman

Mr. Carrisford lives in the grand house beside the seminary, tended by servants and haunted by the diamond mines that ruined his friend. He loves nothing more than the memory of "the little princess in rags and tatters," and his quiet campaign to find her drives the story's middle arc from behind the wall. His guilt and his tenderness — the way he shades his eyes when Sara tells him about the bun shop — make him the novel's counterweight to Miss Minchin's coldness.

Ram Dass

supporting

Also known as XI Ram Dass

Ram Dass serves the ailing Mr. Carrisford, but his true attention belongs to the attic child across the roof — a girl he has never met yet knows 'all her life each day.' He is the one who first imagines the transformation of her bare room, and his quiet devotion becomes the engine of the novel's central act of mercy. Without him, Sara's suffering would go unseen and unrelieved.

Lavinia Herbert

supporting

Also known as Lavinia

Lavinia rules Miss Minchin's pupils through haughty charm until Sara Crewe arrives and effortlessly eclipses her. Her jealousy hardens into petty persecution once Sara is reduced to a servant, giving the school its sharpest portrait of status turned weapon. She matters because she makes Sara's fall social as well as financial — the loss of friends stings as much as the loss of fortune.

Captain Crewe

supporting

Also known as Crewe, the late Captain Crewe

Captain Crewe adores Sara with a reckless generosity, indulging her with a French maid, lavish clothes, and the nickname 'Little Missus.' His love is real but his judgment is not: he invests everything in a diamond mine scheme that collapses, and his death leaves Sara penniless among strangers. He matters because his affection shapes Sara's confidence — and his ruin sets the whole plot in motion.

Emily

minor

Also known as Emily Carew, Carew

Sara's beloved doll whom she treats as a friend and confidante.

Jessie

minor

A minor student at the boarding school, often seen with Lavinia.

Mr. Carmichael

minor

Also known as Carmichael

A lawyer who assists Mr. Carrisford in searching for Sara.

Mr. Barrow

minor

Also known as Barrow

A lawyer who informs Miss Minchin of Captain Crewe's death.

Mariette

minor

Sara's French maid during her wealthy days at the school.

Melchisedec

minor

Also known as Melchy, Mrs. Melchisedec, IX Melchisedec

A rat living in the attic who becomes Sara's pet and friend.

Guy Clarence

minor

Mr. Carrisford's young neighbor who briefly interacts with Sara.

Miss St. John

minor

Ermengarde's aunt who visits the school briefly.

Donald

minor

One of Mr. Carmichael's young sons who plays in the square.

Mr. Montmorency

minor

A minor character mentioned in the school context.

Mrs. Carmichael

minor

Mr. Carmichael's wife, who helps care for Sara.

Madame Pascal

minor

Also known as Madame

A French acquaintance of Sara's from her early days.

Nora

minor

A minor student at the boarding school.

Ralph Crewe

minor

Also known as Crewe

Captain Crewe's full name, mentioned in passing.

Mr. St. John

minor

Ermengarde's father, briefly mentioned.

James

minor

A servant or minor figure at the school.

Isobel Grange

minor

Also known as Isobel

Sara's deceased mother, mentioned in backstory.

Eliza

minor

A minor servant at the school.

Rosalind Gladys

minor

A minor student mentioned in the school roster.