# Barnaby Rudge — Character guide

> Key figures in Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens.

- [Barnaby Rudge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/barnaby_rudge.md): Barnaby moves through the riotous London crowds as the one lighthearted, undesigning creature in the whole assembly, clutching his blue flag and beaming at anyone who calls him bold. His devotion to his mother is total a
- [Hugh](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/hugh.md): Hugh sleeps in the ruinous outbuildings of the Maypole and can find his way anywhere blindfold, a savage, cudgel-carrying servant who owes no loyalty to anyone. He flatters Barnaby with visions of gold lace and grand hou
- [Mr. Geoffrey Haredale](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/geoffrey_haredale.md): Mr. Haredale is landlord to the Maypole and master of the Warren, a man of stiff dignity whose family has been locked for years in a bitter quarrel with Sir John Chester. He keeps his niece Emma under a watchful, joyless
- [Edward Chester](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/edward_chester.md): Edward Chester is the son of the elegant, sneering Sir John, from whom he has broken in disgust, and he loves Emma Haredale, whose uncle despises his name. His position is impossible from every side: his father mocks his
- [Joe Willet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/joe_willet.md): Joe Willet is the only son of old John Willet of the Maypole, a young man of spirit trapped in an inn where nothing ever changes and his father treats him like a boy. He loves Dolly Varden, the locksmith's pretty daughte
- [Simon Tappertit](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/simon_tappertit.md): Simon Tappertit is Gabriel Varden's apprentice, a thin-faced, sharp-nosed little fellow who styles himself Mr. Tappertit out of doors and is convinced he is above the middle size. His soul, as he puts it, is forever gett
- [Miss Miggs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/miss_miggs.md): Miggs keeps house for the Vardens and keeps score against everyone in it, especially pretty Dolly, whose face she cannot forgive. Professing contempt for all men, she is hopelessly fixated on the apprentice Tappertit, an
- [Mr. Dennis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/dennis.md): Dennis marches with Hugh and Barnaby as a self-styled man of action, all too ready to turn public disorder into private gain. He is disgusted by Barnaby's talk of mothers and sweethearts, insisting there is no place for 
- [John Willet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/john_willet.md): John Willet presides over the Maypole as if it were an unshakeable institution, dispensing ale and opinions with the gravity of a man who has never been contradicted. His comfortable certainties and his baffled affection
- [Dolly Varden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/dolly_varden.md): Dolly Varden returns home all smiles and dimples, teasing her father, dismissing her suitors, and pressing her nose into mysteries that are none of her business. She is loved by both Joe Willet and the apprentice Tappert
- [Sir John Chester](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/sir_john_chester.md): Sir John Chester moves through drawing-rooms and sickrooms with the same unruffled grace, dispensing charm where it costs him nothing and manipulation where it serves him. His estrangement from his son Edward and his qui
- [Mrs. Varden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/mrs_varden.md): Mrs. Varden is a lady of uncertain temper, cheerful when others are dull and peevish when they are merry, ruling her home through a fog of religious feeling and sudden grievance. Her chief victim and accomplice is the se
- [Gabriel Varden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/gabriel_varden.md): Gabriel Varden keeps his shop, his apprentice Sim Tappertit, and his peace of mind with the same patient craftsmanship he brings to a lock. His chief domestic trial is his wife Martha, whose capricious temper and self-im
- [The Blind Man](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/the_blind_man.md): Stagg moves through the shadows of the Rudge mystery, tracking a woman to her hospital bedside and coolly reporting her refusal to save a condemned man. He loves to feel his victims squirm, drawing out their impatience a
- [Gashford](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/gashford.md): Gashford glides through the Gordon household with the smooth manners of a trusted servant, but his real talent is for manipulation: he pours drink, drops rumours of Romish chapels, and lets Hugh and Dennis believe the id
- [Lord George Gordon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/lord_george_gordon.md): Lord George Gordon is the name on every Londoner's lips as the great petition against the Catholics draws thousands to St. George's Fields. He has declared he will not present it unless attended by a vast body of 'good a
- [Solomon Daisy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/solomon_daisy.md): Clerk at the Maypole, tells the story of the murder.
- [Emma Haredale](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/emma_haredale.md): Emma Haredale is dragged from her home by the mob alongside Dolly Varden, and in the jolting carriage she keeps her composure while her companion sobs. Her feelings run deep but seldom surface, and her terror is not for 
- [Grip](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/grip.md): Grip perches on Barnaby's shoulder through the tumult of the riots and the quieter dread of the prison yard, croaking encouragement or remonstrance as the moment demands. He is a creature of odd, almost human sympathy, a
- [John Grueby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/john_grueby.md): Loyal servant to Lord George Gordon.
- [Mr. Parkes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/mr_parkes.md): One of the regulars at the Maypole Inn.
- [Mr. Cobb](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/mr_cobb.md): Another regular at the Maypole Inn.
- [Thomas Curzon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/thomas_curzon.md): Landlord of the Golden Fleece, mentioned in the murder story.
- [Mrs. Rudge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/barnaby_rudge_se/characters/mrs_rudge.md): Mrs. Rudge keeps a small, poor household with her son Barnaby, and the locksmith Gabriel Varden treats her with a gentle, wary kindness. When a soft knock comes at the shutter, her mild manner cracks into agitation, and 

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