# Titus Price — Anna of the Five Towns character guide

> Titus Price in Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett.

**Role:** supporting

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

**First appearance:** 0003-i-the-kindling-of-love

## Snapshot

Willie's father, a struggling businessman and chapel figure known as 'owd Price,' whose financial troubles and miserly dealings shadow his son's prospects in Bursley.

## Who they are

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.

## In the story

### [III: The Birthday](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_of_the_five_towns_se/chapters/iii-the-birthday)

Sunday-school superintendent who is deeply in arrears on rent; Anna is shocked by his hypocrisy and his shabby appearance at the works.

### [V: The Revival](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_of_the_five_towns_se/chapters/v-the-revival)

Among the class-leaders who follow sinners into the vestry for guidance during the revival.

### [On the Bank](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_of_the_five_towns_se/chapters/viii-on-the-bank)

Titus Price is expected to send rent money to Anna, but has not done so, causing Ephraim's anger.

### [XI: The Downfall](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_of_the_five_towns_se/chapters/xi-the-downfall)

Titus Price is the central figure of the chapter, having hanged himself in the slip-house due to business troubles.

### [XIV: End of a Simple Soul](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_of_the_five_towns_se/chapters/xiv-end-of-a-simple-soul)

Mentioned as having died by suicide, leading to Willie's departure.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_of_the_five_towns_se/characters/titus_price
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_of_the_five_towns_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_of_the_five_towns_se/characters