Barchester Towers · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope.
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Mr. Slope
major
Also known as Obadiah Slope, the Rev. Mr. Slope, Slope
Slope arrives at the palace as chaplain and immediately becomes the engine of the new regime, courting Eleanor Bold and scheming for the hospital and the deanery. He hates Dr. Grantly not out of passion but because he foresaw the necessity of fighting him, and he fights with cunning when courage will not serve. His ambition is the wedge that splits Barchester into warring camps, making him the novel's most watchable villain.
Eleanor Bold
major
Also known as Eleanor, Nelly, Mrs. Bold, the Widow Bold
Eleanor mourns John Bold with a devotion that clings even to his faults, and pours her remaining love into their infant son. Her fortune and her beauty make her a target for suitors — most alarmingly Mr. Slope — while her father and brother-in-law argue over her future as though she were a pawn. Her quiet refusal to be managed is the moral center around which the novel's courtships turn.
Mr. Arabin
major
Also known as Francis Arabin, the Rev. Francis Arabin, Lazarus
Arabin is the new vicar of St. Ewold's, a bookish man whom the archdeacon enlists in the fight against Slope. His apparent gaiety during Eleanor's troubles irritates her family, who suspect him of indifference or worse, while he quietly doubts that she cares for Slope at all. His clear-eyed counsel and his own unspoken feelings make him the hinge on which the novel's romantic and ecclesiastical plots both swing.
Mr. Harding
major
Also known as Harding, Mr. Precentor Harding, the Master of Lazarus
Harding has lost Hiram's Hospital and now finds himself proposed for the deanery by friends who plot his future without consulting him. He is shuffled between Plumstead and Barchester, his mild protests drowned out by the archdeacon's triumph and his daughter's urgency. His humility and his refusal to scheme make him the moral touchstone against which the ambitions of Slope and Mrs. Proudie are measured.
Dr. Proudie
major
Also known as Bishop Proudie, the Bishop of Barchester
Proudie is nominally the head of the diocese, but his wife manages his household and Slope manages his business, leaving him to murmur 'hum, ha' while others decide. He is not a bad man, only a weak one, and his weakness is the vacuum into which Mrs. Proudie and Slope both pour their ambitions. His passivity shapes the entire struggle, since whoever controls the bishop effectively controls Barchester.
Mrs. Proudie
major
Also known as Mrs. Proudie Victrix
Mrs. Proudie presides over the palace with the confidence of a woman who knows she is the real bishop, dispensing patronage and snubbing the Signora Neroni with equal relish. She and Slope begin as allies and end as rivals, and their contest over Hiram's Hospital becomes the test of who truly rules Barchester. Her triumph is complete and her methods are merciless, making her the most formidable force in the novel's social world.
Archdeacon Grantly
major
Also known as Dr. Grantly, Mr. Grantly, the Archdeacon
Dr. Grantly commands the clerical establishment of Barchester with the assurance of a man who has never imagined it otherwise, and the arrival of Bishop Proudie and his chaplain Slope threatens everything he holds dear. He is genuinely attached to his protégé Mr. Arabin, yet his anxiety over Arabin's rumored entanglement with the Signora Neroni torments him almost as much as Slope's ascent, and his wife's sharper eyes only deepen his misery. His schemes to protect the hospital and block his enemies drive much of the novel's early maneuvering.
Signora Neroni
supporting
Also known as Madeline Vesey Neroni, La Signora Neroni, Madeline
Carried into every drawing-room on a sofa she insists upon securing in advance, Madeline Neroni turns the bishop's reception and Miss Thorne's fête into theaters for her own amusement, targeting parsons old and young, sanctified and worldly. Her ambition is sensation—to have clergymen at her feet and every parson's wife sent home in a green fit of jealousy—and her physical helplessness only sharpens her power over those who pity and desire her. Her flirtation with Mr. Arabin becomes a scandal that threatens his reputation and the Archdeacon's plans.
Bertie Stanhope
supporting
Also known as Ethelbert Stanhope, young Stanhope
Ethelbert Stanhope, with his silken beard, light blue eyes, and strange dress, is unlike any man Eleanor Bold has known, and his easy familiarity draws her into a friendship she never suspects is dangerous. His sister Charlotte orchestrates every intimacy, hoping to entrap Eleanor's fortune for her brother, though Bertie himself is less schemer than amiable drifter. He matters because he embodies the Stanhope family's seductive impropriety—the charm that makes Eleanor's innocence precarious.
Charlotte Stanhope
supporting
Also known as Charlotte, Stanhope
Charlotte Stanhope is the practical intelligence behind the Stanhope household, encouraging her father's neglect of his livings, her mother's idleness, her sister's scandals, and her brother's uselessness, all so she may remain mistress and manager. She befriends Eleanor Bold with calculated warmth, engineering constant contact with Bertie and believing that familiarity will make retreat impossible. Her blindness to Eleanor's actual character—her assumption that no woman could be playful with Bertie and still be innocent—makes her a quietly dangerous force in the novel's middle.
Miss Thorne
supporting
Also known as Thorne
Miss Thorne invites all the country round to a breakfast on the lawn at Ullathorne—tents, archery, fiddlers, races, and every game she can trace to the good days of Queen Elizabeth—and the party becomes the novel's great social collision. She is mortified when the Signora Neroni demands to bring Mr. Slope, fearing Mr. Arabin will be offended, and apologizes almost in tears, only to be reassured that Arabin will meet his rival with pleasure. Her anxious hospitality gathers every faction of Barchester onto one lawn, where the plot's tensions flare into the open.
Mr. Thorne
supporting
Also known as Wilfred Thorne
Mr. Thorne shares Ullathorne with his sister and observes the ecclesiastical maneuvering around him with the detachment of a man whose estates are his own and whose comfort matters more than controversy. He declines to participate much in Miss Thorne's regret over the age's inferiority, feeling that a full suit of chain-armour would add little to his personal comfort. His quiet, ironic presence at the Ullathorne fête provides a counterpoint to the ambition and intrigue consuming the clergymen around him.
Mr. Quiverful
supporting
Also known as Quiverful, the Rev. Mr. Quiverful
Mr. Quiverful of Puddingdale is a poor clergyman whose overflowing household makes the wardenship of Hiram's Hospital look less like preferment than survival. He and his wife must trudge or beg rides into Barchester while the archdeacon's brougham sweeps past, and the contrast stings. His candid hunger for the post turns the novel's clerical politics into a question of bread, not merely doctrine.
Mrs. Quiverful
supporting
Also known as Mrs. Quiverful of Puddingdale
Mrs. Quiverful manages a vicarage bursting with children and a husband whose prospects rest on other men's whims. Too stout to walk to Barchester and too proud to explain herself to Farmer Subsoil, she arrives at the palace with an umbrella and a grievance. Her blunt, practical assault on the bishop's door exposes how much of the novel's ecclesiastical maneuvering is really about money and mouths to feed.
Dr. Stanhope
supporting
Also known as Dr. Vesey Stanhope, old Stanhope
Dr. Vesey Stanhope holds a comfortable stall in the cathedral but has long preferred Como to his duties, leaving his livings to run themselves. His clever daughter Charlotte has encouraged his indolence and quietly smothered his occasional wish to come home, since his church income is all he has. His return drags the beautiful, scandalous Madeline and the idle Bertie into Barchester society, unsettling the town's clerical equilibrium.
Mrs. Stanhope
minor
Also known as Stanhope
Dr. Stanhope's wife, an invalid living abroad.
Mary Bold
minor
Also known as Mary, Molly
John Bold's sister and Eleanor's close friend.
Johnny Bold
minor
Also known as Johnny, Little Johnny Bold
Eleanor and John Bold's infant son.
Dr. Gwynne
minor
Also known as the great Dr. Gwynne
The Master of Lazarus College, Oxford, a friend of Mr. Harding.
Mr. Plomacy
minor
Also known as old Plomacy, the great Mr. Plomacy
The steward at Ullathorne, managing the estate.
Mrs. Grantly
minor
Also known as Mrs. Grantly
The Archdeacon's wife, a sensible and kind woman.
Harry Greenacre
minor
Also known as young Greenacre
A young farmer who courts one of the Lookaloft girls.
Mrs. Greenacre
minor
Also known as good Mrs. Greenacre
Harry Greenacre's mother, a respectable farmer's wife.
Lady De Courcy
minor
Also known as the Countess de Courcy, the Lady Margaretta
An aristocratic woman who visits Ullathorne.
Dr. Trefoil
minor
Also known as poor Dr. Trefoil, the Dean
The elderly Dean of Barchester, whose death precipitates events.
Olivia Proudie
minor
Also known as Olivia
One of Dr. and Mrs. Proudie's daughters.
John Bold
minor
Also known as Mr. John Bold, John Bold the Younger, the late Mr. Bold
Eleanor's deceased husband, a reforming surgeon.
Mr. Towers
minor
Also known as Tom Towers, the indefatigable Mr. Towers
A powerful journalist for The Jupiter newspaper.
Mrs. Lookaloft
minor
Also known as Lookaloft
A pretentious farmer's wife who aspires to gentility.
Mr. Lookaloft
minor
Also known as Mr. Augustus Lookaloft, Gussy
Mrs. Lookaloft's husband, a farmer.
Sir Omicron Pie
minor
Also known as Sir Omicron
A celebrated London physician called to attend the dying dean.
Miss Trefoil
minor
Also known as the learned Miss Trefoil
The learned but eccentric sister of the late Dean.
Mr. Newman
minor
Also known as Newman
A London lawyer consulted by Mr. Harding.
Mr. Stiles
minor
A lawyer's clerk who assists Mr. Newman.
Mr. Rerechild
minor
A Barchester surgeon attending Mrs. Bold's confinement.
Mr. Foster
minor
Also known as Frank Foster
A friend of Bertie Stanhope in London.
Mrs. Phillips
minor
The wife of a lawyer, a friend of Mrs. Quiverful.
Mr. Staple
minor
Also known as Tom Staple, Staple
A lawyer in Barchester.
Sir Nicholas Fitzwhiggin
minor
Also known as Nicholas
A baronet and friend of the Thornes.
Mr. Q.
minor
Also known as Q.
One of Mr. Quiverful's many children.
Augusta Proudie
minor
Also known as Augusta
Another daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Proudie.
Netta Proudie
minor
Also known as Netta
A daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Proudie.
Griselda Grantly
minor
Also known as Griselda
The Archdeacon's beautiful and cold daughter.
Mrs. Clantantram
minor
Also known as old Mrs. Clantantram
An elderly lady of Barchester society.
Mrs. Guffern
minor
A friend of Mrs. Proudie.
Dr. Fillgrave
minor
A Barchester physician, rival to Dr. Proudie's medical choices.
Bob Stubbs
minor
Also known as Stubbs
A young man who marries one of the Lookaloft girls.
John Hiram
minor
Also known as Hiram, old Hiram
The 12th-century founder of Hiram's Hospital.
Mr. Arabin's Tutor
minor
Also known as the tutor of Lazarus
The tutor at Lazarus College, Oxford.
Paulo Neroni
minor
Also known as Signor Neroni
The Signora's estranged husband, an Italian scoundrel.
The Honourable George
minor
Also known as George De Courcy
A son of the Countess De Courcy.
Sir Harkaway Gorse
minor
A baronet mentioned at the Ullathorne sports.
Mr. Josiah Jones
minor
Also known as Jones
A clergyman mentioned in passing.
Mrs. Arabin
minor
Mr. Arabin's mother, mentioned briefly.
Mrs. Slope
minor
Mr. Slope's mother, mentioned in his background.
Betsey Rusk
minor
Also known as Elizabeth
Mrs. Proudie's maid.
Kitty
minor
Also known as Dear Kitty
A young woman mentioned in a letter.
Lotte
minor
A maid in the Stanhope household.
Julia
minor
Also known as little Miss Julia
A child at the Ullathorne sports.
Monica
minor
A friend of Charlotte Stanhope.
Margaretta
minor
Also known as Lady Margaretta
A daughter of the Countess De Courcy.
Susan
minor
Also known as Sue
A maid at the Grantly household.
Thomas
minor
Also known as Tom
A servant at Plumstead rectory.
Farmer Greenacre
minor
Also known as Mr. Greenacre
Harry Greenacre's father, a farmer.
Dominie Sampson
minor
Also known as Sam
A character from Scott's Guy Mannering, alluded to.
Mr. Dean
minor
A clergyman mentioned in passing.
The Servant
minor
An unnamed servant at the palace.
The Priestess
minor
A metaphorical reference to Mrs. Proudie.
The Master of the House
minor
A generic reference to Dr. Proudie.
The Doctor
minor
A generic reference to Dr. Proudie.
The Master
minor
A generic reference to the Master of Lazarus.
Papa
minor
Also known as Dear Papa
Eleanor's affectionate term for her father, Mr. Harding.
Mamma
minor
A term used by the Proudie children for Mrs. Proudie.
The Stanhopes
minor
Also known as Stanhopes
The family collectively, often referred to as a unit.
The Lookalofts
minor
Also known as Lookalofts
The family collectively.
The Quiverfuls
minor
Also known as Quiverfuls
The family collectively.
The Proudies
minor
Also known as Proudies
The family collectively.
The Grantlys
minor
Also known as Grantlys
The family collectively.
The De Courcys
minor
Also known as De Courcys
The aristocratic family.