Character guide

Anna Tellwright

major

Also known as Anna, Tellwright, Miss Anna

A dutiful daughter raised in joyless thrift, Anna inherits sudden wealth and must decide whether her father's money or her own conscience will govern her life.

Henry Mynors

major

Also known as Mynors, Harry, young Mynors

A rising young businessman of cautious, calculating affection, Henry courts Anna with the same prudence he brings to chapel committees and balance sheets.

Willie Price

major

Also known as Willie, old Price, Price, Will

The gentle, hapless son of a defaulting debtor, Willie becomes the object of Anna's compassion and the town's contempt in equal measure.

Ephraim Tellwright

supporting

Also known as Ephraim, Tellwright, Old Tellwright

A Wesleyan financier who counts coins and souls with equal dexterity, Ephraim rules his household with the same iron thrift he brings to circuit accounts.

Agnes Tellwright

supporting

Also known as Agnes, Little Agnes, brother Tellwright

Anna's younger sister, a schoolgirl who anticipates her father's tyranny at every turn and finds quiet joy in her sister's rare good fortune.

Beatrice Sutton

supporting

Also known as Beatrice, Bee, Sutton

Anna's vivacious, chocolate-bearing friend, Beatrice moves through the Five Towns with easy confidence and an insatiable appetite for other people's business.

Mrs. Sutton

supporting

Also known as Bursley

Mrs. Sutton occupies a respectable place in the Five Towns' chapel world, her Monday-night class drawing women like Anna Tellwright who hunger for guidance beyond their fathers' grim households. She is gentle where the town is rough, shielding her charges from worry and offering homilies that feel like wells of inspiration rather than sermons. Her modest influence matters because she gives Anna a glimpse of a life shaped by warmth rather than fear, quietly widening the young woman's sense of what devotion might mean.

Titus Price

supporting

Also known as Mr. Price, owd Price, old Titus

Titus Price scrapes along in the Five Towns' commercial margins, his affairs tangled with the Tellwrights' money and his son Willie's future. He is a man of chapel respectability and pinched means, the kind whose obligations to others sit uneasily beside his own need to keep up appearances. His precarious position matters because it threads the Prices' fate to Anna's inheritance and to the town's web of debt, duty, and quiet humiliation.

Mr. Sutton

minor

Also known as Sutton

Beatrice's father, a local alderman.

Miss Sarah Vodrey

minor

Also known as Sarah Vodrey, Miss Vodrey, old Sarah Vodrey

An elderly spinster and friend of the Tellwrights.

Mr. Banks

minor

A local businessman and acquaintance.

Alderman Sutton

minor

Another Sutton relative, possibly Mr. Sutton's brother.

Mr. Mynors

minor

Also known as Mynors

Henry Mynors's father, a respected elder in the community.

Miss Dickinson

minor

A teacher or governess in the community.

Mrs. Clayton Vernon

minor

Also known as Mrs. Vernon

A society lady involved in church activities.

Tom Kelly

minor

Also known as Kelly, young Tom Kelly

A young man from the town, a minor acquaintance.

Richard Lovatt

minor

A local man, possibly a narrator or observer.

Mr. Wilbraham

minor

A minor character, possibly a clergyman or official.

Mr. Lovatt

minor

A local resident, possibly related to Richard Lovatt.

Dane

minor

Also known as Lawyer Dane

A lawyer involved in business affairs.

William Sutton

minor

A relative of the Sutton family.

Miss Sutton

minor

A female member of the Sutton family.

William Price

minor

Possibly another son of Titus Price.

Eli Machin

minor

A minor character mentioned in passing.

Hancock

minor

A local tradesman or worker.

Barrett

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant or worker.

Leal

minor

Also known as Mr. Leal

A minor character, possibly a business associate.