# Can You Forgive Her? — Character guide

> Key figures in Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope.

- [Alice Vavasor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/alice_vavasor.md): Alice moves through the novel as a woman of conscience who trusts her own judgment least of all, breaking with the worthy John Grey and drifting toward her restless cousin George. Her visits to Matching Priory and her fr
- [George Vavasor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/george_vavasor.md): George is the black sheep heir to a fine estate, idolized by his sister Kate and half-feared by everyone else, whose political career and courtship of Alice both run on borrowed money and borrowed hope. He speaks of love
- [John Grey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/john_grey.md): Grey is the suitor Alice breaks with and cannot quite escape, a man whose beauty of mouth and steady good sense make her feel both loved and judged. He refuses to accept her rejection as final, treating her wavering as s
- [Lady Glencora Palliser](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/lady_glencora_palliser.md): Glencora is Alice's closest friend and sharpest mirror, a woman whose wild past with Burgo Fitzgerald still flickers beneath her role as a great man's wife. She mocks Plantagenet's seriousness and her own captivity in th
- [Plantagenet Palliser](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/plantagenet_palliser.md): Palliser is the coming man of British politics, a Chancellor of the Exchequer in waiting who trades his sword of state for the distaff when Glencora needs him. He tracks down Burgo Fitzgerald at the gaming table not to t
- [Kate Vavasor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/kate_vavasor.md): Kate moves between Alice's confidences and George's ambitions, idolizing her brother so completely that she would spend her last farthing on his next election. She manages the awkward comedy of their aunt Mrs. Greenow's 
- [Mrs. Greenow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/mrs_greenow.md): Mrs. Greenow presides over Yarmouth and later Vavasor Hall as a cheerful, commanding widow whose grief never once interferes with dinner. Her genius lies in perfect evenhandedness: she smiles on farmer Cheesacre and Capt
- [Mr. Cheesacre](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/mr_cheesacre.md): Cheesacre is a man of property who cannot fathom why property alone should not win a widow, and his courtship consists largely of enumerating his own solid virtues. When Mrs. Greenow's favor tilts toward his rival, he pi
- [Captain Bellfield](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/captain_bellfield.md): Bellfield lives on credit, charm, and the generosity of the very men he has fleeced, and his suit of Mrs. Greenow is frankly a rescue mission. Where Cheesacre offers substance, Bellfield offers helplessness, and the wido
- [Burgo Fitzgerald](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/burgo_fitzgerald.md): Burgo Fitzgerald is everything a husband should not be—drunk, idle, in debt, and devastatingly attractive—and Lady Glencora knows it better than anyone. She does not deceive herself about his character; she simply cannot
- [Mr. John Vavasor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/mr_vavasor_sr.md): Mr. Vavasor is a genial man who lends money to his nephew George with a shrug and a 'it's only lent,' never quite reckoning what those loans cost his daughter. His casual generosity—or weakness—places Alice in an awkward
- [Lady Macleod](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/lady_macleod.md): Lady Macleod spends her precious London month in a cramped King Street lodging, enduring second-rate dinners among noble relatives she half-disapproves of, all for the supposed good of Alice. She never leans back in a ch
- [Lady Midlothian](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/lady_midlothian.md): Lady Midlothian moves through the Palliser circle as a woman whose wealth and connections give her the confidence to interfere in other people's lives, particularly when it comes to matters of marriage and propriety. Ali
- [Mr. Bott](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/mr_bott.md): Mr. Bott attaches himself to Plantagenet Palliser's rising star, eager to be seen as a kingmaker and to lecture younger Members on the true location of power in the House of Commons. He grandly declares that if Lord Broc
- [Lady Monk](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/lady_monk.md): Lady Monk presides over her London house with the confidence of a woman who has been a great beauty and remains handsome in her advanced age, a true scion of the Fitzgeralds of Worcestershire, of whom it was said there n
- [Mr. Scruby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/scruby.md): Mr. Scruby manages the gritty business of George Vavasor's Chelsea election, inventing the cry 'Vote for Vavasor and the River Bank' and pestering his candidate about Father Thames and the embanking question. He refuses 
- [Mrs. Marsham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/mrs_marsham.md): A gossipy neighbor who spies on Alice and reports to Lady Midlothian.
- [Mr. Tombe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/mr_tombe.md): The family lawyer who advises Alice and Mr. Vavasor on financial matters.
- [Jeannette](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/jeannette.md): Mrs. Greenow's loyal and sharp-tongued maid.
- [Mr. Maxwell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/maxwell.md): A tenant farmer on the Vavasor estate, involved in the election.
- [Charlie Fairstairs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/charlie_fairstairs.md): A young woman who flirts with Captain Bellfield and others.
- [Mr. Grimes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/mr_grimes.md): A rough farmer who works for George Vavasor and assists in shady dealings.
- [Calder Jones](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/calder_jones.md): A Welsh neighbor and friend of the Vavasors, involved in local politics.
- [Mr. Grindley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/grindley.md): A lawyer involved in the Vavasor family legal affairs.
- [Sir Cosmo Monk](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/sir_cosmo_monk.md): Lady Monk's husband, a minor nobleman.
- [Duke of Omnium](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/duke_of_omnium.md): The elderly, wealthy Duke, head of the Palliser family.
- [Mrs. Conway Sparkes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/mrs_conway_sparkes.md): A minor society lady who appears at parties and gatherings.
- [Bat Smithers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/bat_smithers.md): A jockey or stable hand associated with the Vavasor family.
- [Duke of St. Bungay](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/duke_of_st_bungay.md): A senior politician and advisor to Plantagenet Palliser.
- [Mr. Levy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/mr_levy.md): A shady moneylender who deals with George Vavasor.
- [Duchess of St. Bungay](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/duchess_of_st_bungay.md): The wife of the Duke of St. Bungay, a society hostess.
- [Iphy Palliser](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/iphy_palliser.md): Plantagenet Palliser's younger sister.
- [Squire Vavasor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/squire_vavasor.md): The old, dying squire of Vavasor Hall, George's grandfather.
- [Lord Middlesex](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/can_you_forgive_her_se/characters/lord_middlesex.md): A minor politician or nobleman mentioned in passing.

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