# Can Such Things Be? — Character guide

> Key figures in Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose Bierce.

- [Halpin Frayser](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/halpin_frayser.md): Halpin Frayser is the spoiled youngest of a well-to-do Nashville family, a reluctant law student whose maternal great-grandfather was a Colonial poet and whose mother secretly dotes on that same tainted inheritance. His 
- [Haïta](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/haita.md): Haïta lives alone in a valley cave, faithful to his sheep and to the god Hastur, dutiful even toward a feeble hermit he feeds with ewe's milk and oat cake. When a beautiful maiden appears beside him and offers companions
- [Moxon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/moxon.md): Moxon is a mechanician whose chess-playing automaton draws visitors curious to see a machine outplay men—and to hear its maker defend it with a strange, proprietary tenderness. He insists the thing has a mind of its own,
- [Brainerd Byring](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/brainerd_byring.md): Brainerd Byring rides with a detachment ordered into hazardous, silent country, where a missing vidette named Dunning has already broken orders and ridden forward alone. When the major halts at the cedar forest's edge an
- [Jo Dunfer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/jo_dunfer.md): Jo Dunfer—Gopher to those who know him—is a little man with a wagon, a bitten finger, and a tongue he keeps for reasons of his own. He narrates the ruin of Whisky and Ah Wee with a sardonic performer's relish, then turns
- [Hiram Beeson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/hiram_beeson.md): Hiram Beeson dies on the sixteenth of July, 1863, known to every man, woman, and grown child in his village, and is buried two days later with a funeral the local paper cannot ignore. Around his death gather the ordinary
- [Hawver](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/hawver.md): Hawver is a rough-edged wagon driver who tells the story of Silas Deemer's death with theatrical, mocking precision, transforming himself from comic narrator to grieving avenger before the listener's eyes. His devotion t
- [William Holt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/william_holt.md): Holt is a passenger on the Morrow who becomes quietly obsessed with Miss Janette Harford, a woman whose family name matches a branch of his own. When he looks into her eyes, he sees a strange procession of familiar faces
- [Hugh Morgan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/hugh_morgan.md): Morgan is the subject of a coroner's inquest, his corpse showing wounds no human hand could have made, his death witnessed by a friend who saw him thrown down by an unseen force. The diary he left behind becomes a crucia
- [Mohun Dampier](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/mohun_dampier.md): Dampier is a friend whose quiet composure cracks when a tapping sound interrupts a late-night conversation, and he insists no one is there. He tells of a past encounter with a doppelgänger that seemed to seal his fate, a
- [Jaralson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/jaralson.md): Jaralson is the law's representative in a case that quickly outruns rational explanation, listening as a witness named Gopher confesses to a long-hidden crime and accuses the detective himself of murder. His composure un
- [Silas Deemer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/silas_deemer.md): Deemer is a well-known village merchant whose death and burial are followed by reports of his ghost appearing in the closed store, lit by an eerie glow. The townspeople gather to watch, at first mocking, then silent as t
- [Barr Lassiter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/barr_lassiter.md): Barr Lassiter walks up the gravel path to the house where he was born, expecting two years of war to have aged him past recognition, and finds every familiar object unchanged but every familiar face turned away. His fath
- [Henry Saylor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/henry_saylor.md): Henry Saylor, called Gopher, narrates the deaths of Whisky and Jo with a consummate actor's control, drawing sympathy for his dramatis personae and then turning it, with a grin, upon himself. He kept a cussed secret for 
- [Bramwell Olcott Bartine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/bramwell_olcott_bartine.md): John Bartine sits by the fire and refuses, with a mysterious reluctance, to answer so simple a question as the time of night, until his guest's impudence forces the story out of him. The watch has been in his family for 
- [John May](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/john_may.md): John May lives with his family in a strained truce after his father struck him and he answered with a terrible threat that was never withdrawn. One Sunday in June his father goes out with a spade to dig at a spring a mil
- [Orrin Brower](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/orrin_brower.md): Orrin Brower's tale reaches the reader through the voice of Henry Saylor, the sardonic little man who narrates the deaths of Whisky and Jo and then turns on his listener with the charge that he poisoned the beast's drink
- [Gordon Doyle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/gordon_doyle.md): Gordon Doyle is three weeks out from Liverpool on the City of Prague, bound for New York with a broken shaft and a lunatic for a cabinmate, and he is engaged to marry Janette Harford, whom he met a year ago in London and
- [John Bartine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/john_bartine.md): Bartine is a Virginia gentleman whose heirloom watch was returned to his family after his great-grandfather, a Tory planter, vanished into rebel custody during the Revolution. The watch's habit of stopping at fatal momen
- [William Hayner Gordon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/william_hayner_gordon.md): Aboard the Morrow, Gordon befriends Miss Janette Harford, a young woman bound for Devonshire, and discovers their families share an uncanny connection. When he looks into her eyes, he sees a crowd of familiar strangers p
- [Young Halpin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/young_halpin.md): Halpin Frayser is the spoiled, indolent youngest of a well-to-do Tennessee family, more drawn to literature than the politics his father and brothers pursue. His mother secretly shares his poetic temperament, but the fam
- [King](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/king.md): A man who experiences a strange and terrifying encounter with a ghost.
- [Dr. Dorrimore](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/dr_dorrimore.md): A doctor who investigates a mysterious death and encounters the supernatural.
- [Henry Armstrong](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/henry_armstrong.md): A man who is executed and then experiences a strange afterlife.
- [Mr. Rosser](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/mr_rosser.md): A man who encounters a ghostly figure in a haunted house.
- [Alvan Creede](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/alvan_creede.md): A man who becomes involved in a mysterious and tragic event.
- [Whisky Jo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/whisky_jo.md): A drunkard who encounters a supernatural entity.
- [Lawrence Barting](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/lawrence_barting.md): A man who returns from the dead to deliver a message.
- [Holker](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/holker.md): A man who investigates a mysterious disappearance.
- [Staley Fleming](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/staley_fleming.md): A man who experiences a hallucination that leads to his death.
- [Dunning](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/dunning.md): A soldier who experiences a strange and fatal encounter.
- [Janette Harford](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/janette_harford.md): A woman who becomes involved in a supernatural event.
- [Mr. Harker](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/mr_harker.md): A man who investigates a haunted house.
- [Andrus C. Palmer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/andrus_c_palmer.md): A man who experiences a strange and terrifying vision.
- [Stevens](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/stevens.md): A man who experiences a strange and fatal encounter.
- [Philip Eckert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/philip_eckert.md): An old man who experiences a strange and terrifying encounter.
- [Charles Ashmore](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/charles_ashmore.md): A young man who mysteriously disappears without a trace.
- [Col. J. C. McArdle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/col_j_c_mcardle.md): A colonel who investigates a mysterious death.
- [James Burne Worson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/james_burne_worson.md): A man who experiences a strange and fatal encounter while running.
- [Ben Greene](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/ben_greene.md): A soldier who experiences a strange and fatal encounter.
- [Mr. Manton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/mr_manton.md): A man who is haunted by the ghost of his wife.
- [Rev. Mr. Cummings](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/rev_mr_cummings.md): A reverend who encounters a ghostly figure.
- [Margaret Corray](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/margaret_corray.md): A woman who becomes involved in a supernatural event.
- [John Mortonson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/john_mortonson.md): A man whose funeral takes a bizarre and terrifying turn.
- [Hetty Parlow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/hetty_parlow.md): A woman who becomes involved in a mysterious event.
- [Rev. Henry Galbraith](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/rev_henry_galbraith.md): A reverend who becomes involved in a mysterious event.
- [Williamson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/williamson.md): A man who experiences a strange and terrifying encounter.
- [Mrs. Williamson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/mrs_williamson.md): A woman who is haunted by a ghostly apparition.
- [Sancher](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/sancher.md): A man who becomes involved in a mysterious event.
- [Lieutenant Dudley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/lieutenant_dudley.md): A lieutenant who experiences a strange and fatal encounter.
- [Robert Mosely Maren](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/robert_mosely_maren.md): A man who experiences a strange and terrifying encounter.
- [Hastur](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/hastur.md): A mysterious and powerful entity from the city of Carcosa.
- [Jane](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/jane.md): A woman who becomes involved in a mysterious event.
- [Mr. Grossmith](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/mr_grossmith.md): A man who experiences a strange and terrifying encounter.
- [Herman Deluse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/herman_deluse.md): An old man who experiences a strange and terrifying encounter.
- [Bushrod Albro](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/bushrod_albro.md): A man who becomes involved in a mysterious event.
- [Myron Bayne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters/myron_bayne.md): A man who returns as a ghost to communicate with his descendants.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_such_things_be_se/characters