Clarissa · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Clarissa by Samuel Richardson.
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Clarissa Harlowe
major
Also known as Clary, Clarissa, Miss Clarissa Harlowe, Clarissa Harlowe, Miss Harlowe, Clary Harlowe, Clarissa Lovelace
Clarissa is the admired daughter of a wealthy family who expect her obedience in marriage, and her refusal to comply turns affection into siege. Her virtue, eloquence, and self-command are genuine, but so is her pride in them, and she is caught between a family that will not hear her and a suitor she cannot trust. Her letters — the novel's engine — make the reader her confidante as she reasons her way toward choices she cannot unmake.
Robert Lovelace
major
Also known as Mr. Lovelace, Lovelace, Robert Lovelace, R. Lovelace, Squire Lovelace
Lovelace moves through the world as a man of quality and spirit, openly averse to marriage and skilled at making others perform for him — as when he drills the hired Captain Tomlinson through a fake reconciliation before an audience of credulous landladies. His obsession with Clarissa is real, but it feeds on conquest, defiance, and the pleasure of managing everyone in the room. His charm is the novel's most dangerous force, and his letters reveal the vanity beneath it.
Anna Howe
major
Also known as Miss Anna Howe, Miss Howe, Howe, Bell, Miss Bell
Anna is the friend Clarissa writes to when the family closes ranks, and the one whose house becomes a quiet site of forbidden visits. She is witty, impatient with hypocrisy, and bold enough to say what Clarissa only hints — which makes her both indispensable and, at times, a risk. Through her replies the reader gets a second intelligence on every Harlowe maneuver, and a friendship that survives the worst.
John Belford
major
Also known as Mr. Belford, Belford, Jack Belford, J. Belford, John Belford
Belford begins as Lovelace's audience and accomplice in letters, a man of the same set and the same appetites. But as Clarissa's suffering becomes undeniable, he turns into her advocate — visiting her lodgings, negotiating with her cousin Colonel Morden, and bearing witness when her own family will not. His shift from confidant to conscience is one of the novel's quietest and most consequential movements.
James Harlowe Jr.
supporting
Also known as Mr. James Harlowe, James, James Harlowe, Brother, Son James
James is the son and heir who cannot bear being outshone, and his grudge against Lovelace becomes a grudge against the sister who once drew his rival's attention. He leads the charge at her return, accusing her of disobedience and pushing the family toward the Solmes match as a matter of control. His mother's letter fears he may 'come to some harm' — a sign of how much the household's violence runs through him.
Arabella Harlowe
supporting
Also known as Arabella, Bella, Miss Arabella, Sister Bella, Miss Arabella Harlowe
Arabella is the sister who should be first in the marriage market and is not, and she never lets Clarissa forget it. She receives her with 'solemn and stiff form,' sides with James against her, and later, at the reading of the will, is quick to claim the books she and her sister 'never bought the same.' Her spite is domestic and relentless, and it shows how the Harlowe campaign against Clarissa is fed as much by sibling rivalry as by principle.
Mr. Solmes
supporting
Also known as Solmes, Mr. Solmes, Squire Solmes
Solmes is the rich, unattractive man the Harlowe family—especially Clarissa's brother and sister—insist she must marry for money and alliance, despite her open loathing. His awkward, grasping presence and the family's coercive tactics, including a staged fire to manipulate her, embody the domestic pressure that drives Clarissa toward desperation. He matters because his unwanted suit is the immediate engine of the plot: it forces Clarissa to consider escape, setting the whole tragedy in motion.
Mr. Hickman
supporting
Also known as Hickman, Mr. Hickman, Charles Hickman, honest Hickman
Hickman is the long-suffering admirer of Anna Howe, tolerated rather than embraced, a decent man whose very constancy invites her scorn. Anna confesses she has not shown him Lovelace's letter, fearing that any favour would make him 'grow upon indulgence'—a telling sign of her guarded, teasing power over him. He matters as a foil to Lovelace: a genuinely honourable suitor whose quiet worth highlights, by contrast, the dangerous glamour Clarissa's friend and Clarissa herself are drawn to.
Mrs. Harlowe
supporting
Also known as Mrs. Harlowe, Harlowe, Madam
Mrs. Harlowe once defended Clarissa, saying no fortune could make Solmes worthy of her, yet she has been 'brought over' to the family's coercive plan. In her letter to Mrs. Norton she admits she must 'sail with the tide,' her own judgment joining the general resentment, even as she confesses a mother's tenderness would rather lose everything than lose her child forever. Her agonised wavering matters because it shows how even love can be enlisted in cruelty, deepening Clarissa's isolation.
Mr. John Harlowe
supporting
Also known as Mr. John Harlowe, uncle John, John Harlowe
John Harlowe is one of the two uncles present at the cold, formal reception that greets Clarissa on her return from Miss Howe's, where the family's displeasure is staged as a tribunal. Though less harsh than his brother Antony, he offers no real protection, his kindness dissolving before the brother's accusations and the father's authority. He matters as an example of the well-meaning relative whose inaction helps seal Clarissa's fate, showing that passive sympathy is no match for active family pressure.
Antony Harlowe
supporting
Also known as Antony Harlowe, Mr. Antony Harlowe, Tony, uncle Antony
Antony Harlowe is one of the uncles who sits in judgment at Clarissa's grim homecoming, his harshness matching the family's determination to bend her will. Where his brother John is merely weak, Antony is actively mercenary, valuing the Solmes alliance and the family's reputation over his niece's happiness. He matters because his blunt, unyielding presence represents the patriarchal and financial forces that leave Clarissa with no honourable exit but the one she dreads.
Colonel Morden
supporting
Also known as Colonel Morden, Morden, Colonel, William Morden, Col. Morden
Colonel Morden is the one Harlowe relative who truly loves Clarissa, a man of honour whose generosity—even to Miss Dolly Hervey—marks him as the family's moral exception. Anna Howe laments that he did not arrive in time to save her friend from 'the machinations of the vilest of men,' and his sorrowful attendance at the coffin, escorting the hearse, shows a grief that the others cannot match. He matters because his loyalty and eventual reckoning give the tragedy its sense of outraged justice, embodying the worth the Harlowes failed to protect.
Mrs. Norton
supporting
Also known as Mrs. Norton, Mrs. Judith Norton, Norton, Judith Norton, Mamma Norton
Mrs. Norton raised Clarissa and remains the family's conscience, a woman whose 'virtuous prudence' everyone acknowledges even as they resent her partiality to the fallen favorite. When Mrs. Harlowe writes to her, it is to a confidante who reads Clarissa's letters aloud and pleads her case to a household determined to hear nothing in her favor. Her position between the Harlowes' resentment and Clarissa's suffering makes her the quiet measure of how much mercy the family has left.
Dorcas Wykes
supporting
Also known as Dorcas, Dorcas Wykes, Dorcas Martindale
Lovelace installs Dorcas as Clarissa's maid precisely because she is illiterate, a kinswoman of Mrs. Sinclair who can be trusted to see everything and report it. She is neat, modest-seeming, and 'not to be corrupted' — which is exactly what makes her dangerous, since her loyalty runs to the schemers rather than the lady. Clarissa's instinctive shrinking from her at first meeting proves one of the few sympathies in the book that is entirely correct.
Mrs. Sinclair
supporting
Also known as Mrs. Sinclair, Sinclair, mother Sinclair, widow Sinclair
Mrs. Sinclair presents herself as a genteel landlady with nieces and lodgings, and Clarissa accepts her hospitality on that footing. Behind the facade she runs a house of women who read, entertain, and ensnare, and she watches her guest with the patience of a predator. Her masculine appearance and unctuous civility unsettle Clarissa long before the truth is named, and her establishment becomes the stage on which Lovelace's worst designs are executed.
Sally Martin
supporting
Also known as Sally Martin, Sarah Martin, Sally, Martin
Sally Martin is a fixture of the London house, part of the company that surrounds Clarissa with false cheer and false alarms. She is quick to calculate consequences — she reasons coolly about what a man who has committed 'the vilest of rapes' must do to save himself — and her vigilance is one of the bars between Clarissa and escape. Her presence turns the drawing-room into a surveillance chamber, and her voice is one of the many that make Clarissa feel she is surrounded by enemies wearing the manners of friends.
Polly Horton
supporting
Also known as Polly Horton, Mary Horton, Polly
Polly Horton belongs to the small circle of women who keep Mrs. Sinclair's house running and who watch Clarissa with a mixture of curiosity and self-interest. She is the one who argues that a woman with such a handle against them would never leave if she could — a cold assessment that shows the women know exactly what they are party to. Her voice in the deliberations over locks, bolts, and vigilance makes the house feel less like a home than a siege.
Lady Betty Lawrance
supporting
Also known as Lady Betty Lawrance, Lady Betty, Betty
Lady Betty Lawrance never appears in person, but her identity is one of Lovelace's most useful props: he impersonates her, or has her impersonated, to convince Clarissa that a respectable female relative is waiting to receive her. The Harlowe family knows her name well enough to weigh it in their calculations about Lovelace's intentions. Her offstage presence is a reminder that Lovelace's charm depends on borrowed credit, and that the women in his family are as much his instruments as his victims.
Lady Sarah Sadleir
supporting
Also known as Lady Sarah Sadleir, Lady Sarah, Sarah Sadleir
Lady Sarah Sadleir belongs to the Sadleir branch of Lovelace's family, one of the respectable female relations whose approval he invokes whenever he needs to make his intentions toward Clarissa look honorable. She never appears in her own voice, yet her name circulates through the letters as a kind of currency — a guarantee of propriety that Lovelace spends freely and never redeems. Her invisibility is precisely the point: the more respectable the name he can borrow, the more room he has to maneuver, and the reader learns early to distrust any promise that arrives wrapped in an aunt.
Lord M.
supporting
Also known as Lord M., Lord M, poor Lord M.
Lord M. is the head of the Lovelace family and the source of the fortune and standing that let his nephew move through the world as a gentleman of leisure and appetite. He dotes on Lovelace with a fondness that shades into blindness, forgiving debts, excusing absences, and lending the family name to enterprises he would surely condemn if he understood them. His indulgence matters because it removes every external check on his nephew: the reader sees early that no authority in the Lovelace line will intervene, which leaves Clarissa's fate to rest entirely on Lovelace's own conscience — a slender thread indeed.
Miss Charlotte Montague
supporting
Also known as Miss Charlotte Montague, Charlotte Montague, Charlotte, Miss Montague
Charlotte Montague moves in the same genteel circle as the Harlowe family and is repeatedly invoked by Lovelace as a witness to his respectability — the kind of cousin a man produces when he wants a woman to believe his intentions are serious. She is spoken of as virtuous, which makes her useful to him and dangerous to his schemes at the same time, since her actual presence would expose the gap between the marriage he promises and the one he intends. Her name functions in the early letters as a kind of social collateral, and the reader watches to see whether she will ever be called upon to make good on it.
Miss Patty Montague
supporting
Also known as Miss Patty Montague, Patty, Martha Montague, Miss Martha Montague
Patty Montague, sometimes called Martha, belongs to the same Montague household as Charlotte and shares her reputation for virtue. Lovelace invokes both cousins together when he wants Clarissa to believe that his family will receive her, and Clarissa's wary response — she cannot wish to see them, she says, even if they come to plead for him — shows how little weight those names actually carry with her. The Montague cousins matter less as individuals than as a measure of Lovelace's method: he surrounds himself with honorable women whose honor he can borrow without ever letting them near enough to interfere.
Mrs. Lovick
supporting
Also known as Mrs. Lovick, widow Lovick, Lovick
Mrs. Lovick keeps the lodging house where Clarissa spends her last days, and she becomes one of the small circle of women — with Mrs. Smith and the nurse — who surround her at the end. She is not a schemer and not a saint, just a decent woman who recognizes suffering when she sees it and refuses to look away. Her presence matters because it shows that Clarissa, abandoned by her family and hunted by Lovelace, is not entirely alone in the world; the tenderness of these ordinary women stands in quiet rebuke to the great names who failed her.
Mrs. Smith
supporting
Also known as Mrs. Smith, Smith, dame Smith
Mrs. Smith runs the household where Clarissa lodges in her final illness, and she becomes one of the small group of women who attend her deathbed with genuine sorrow. In the scene Belford describes, she kneels at the foot of the bed with clasped fingers and uplifted eyes, tears falling, while Clarissa speaks her last forgivenesses. She is not a figure of plot but of witness: her grief is the reader's grief, and her presence turns Clarissa's death from a cautionary tale into something closer to a sacred scene.
Captain Tomlinson
supporting
Also known as Captain Tomlinson, Tomlinson, Captain, Antony Tomlinson
Tomlinson arrives at Mrs. Moore's parlor as Lovelace's trusted ally, a solemn gentleman who speaks warmly of the Harlowe family and coolly of Lovelace's defiance, winning the women's sympathy with every well-timed stroke of his ruffles. He is a hired actor whose authority rests on nothing but Lovelace's need to make his lies credible to Clarissa and her landlady. His performance matters because it shows how thoroughly Lovelace has staged the world around Clarissa, turning even friendship into a purchased prop.
Joseph Leman
supporting
Also known as Joseph Leman, Joseph, honest Joseph
Joseph Leman moves through the Harlowe house as a trusted servant while quietly passing intelligence to Lovelace, convinced of his own shrewdness and blind to how completely he is being used. Clarissa sees through him, noting that his abilities would be less esteemed if his power to do ill offices were not greater than they are. His double-dealing matters because it turns the family's own walls into a channel for the very plot they are trying to prevent, and because Clarissa's clear-eyed judgment of him marks her as a reader of people, not just of books.
Betty Barnes
supporting
Also known as Betty Barnes, Betty, Elizabeth, Barnes
Betty Barnes knows every corner of Clarissa's apartment and closet, and is the servant chosen to rifle through them when the family decides to hunt for evidence against her. She is forbidden to mention Clarissa's letters, yet she has already repeated their moving passages to Bella, feeding the household's appetite for scandal. Her small malice matters because it shows how thoroughly Clarissa is watched and how the family's discipline is enforced by servants who enjoy the work.
Hannah Burton
supporting
Also known as Hannah, Hanna, Hannah Burton
Hannah Burton serves Clarissa closely enough to be trusted with her letters and her confidence, and is turned out of the household for it. Her dismissal is one of the early signs that Clarissa's punishment will extend to anyone who shows her kindness, and that the family's anger is not merely private but systematic. Her absence leaves Clarissa more isolated, and makes the reader feel the cost of loyalty in a house where obedience to the family line is the only safe position.
Will
minor
Also known as Will, Wilson, fellow Will
A servant who assists Lovelace's plots.
Mrs. Moore
minor
Also known as Mrs. Moore, goody Moore, widow Moore, Moore
A widow who shelters Clarissa after her escape.
Miss Rawlins
minor
Also known as Miss Rawlins, Poor Miss Rawlins
A young lady at Mrs. Moore's boarding house.
Thomas Belton
minor
Also known as Thomas Belton, Belton, Tom, poor Belton
A dissolute friend of Lovelace who dies repentant.
Richard Mowbray
minor
Also known as Richard Mowbray, Mowbray, Rd. Mowbray
A brutal friend of Lovelace.
James Tourville
minor
Also known as Tourville, Mr. Tourville, James Tourville, Jack Tourville
A prating friend of Lovelace.
Mrs. Howe
minor
Also known as Mrs. Howe, Mrs. Annabella Howe, Annabella
Anna Howe's mother.
Dolly Hervey
minor
Also known as Dolly Hervey, Miss Hervey, Miss Dolly Hervey, Hervey
A young cousin of the Harlowes.
Mrs. Judith Norton
minor
Also known as Mrs. Judith Norton, Judith Norton, Mrs. Norton
Clarissa's former nurse and faithful correspondent.
Dr. Lewen
minor
Also known as Dr. Lewen, Lewen, Arthur Lewen, the good Dr. Lewen
A clergyman who tries to counsel Clarissa.
Mr. Brand
minor
Also known as Mr. Brand, Brand, Elias Brand
A pedantic clergyman who writes against Clarissa.
Mrs. Bevis
minor
Also known as Mrs. Bevis, Bevis, widow Bevis
A widow who assists Clarissa.
Mrs. Townsend
minor
Also known as Mrs. Townsend, Townsend
A woman who helps Clarissa in her escape.
Miss Partington
minor
Also known as Miss Partington, Partington, Priscilla Partington
A flippant young lady at Mrs. Moore's.
Mr. Wyerley
minor
Also known as Mr. Wyerley, Wyerley, Alexander Wyerley
A former suitor of Clarissa.
Mrs. Greme
minor
Also known as Mrs. Greme, Greme
A housekeeper at Lord M.'s estate.
Mr. Goddard
minor
Also known as Mr. Goddard
An apothecary who attends Clarissa.
Simon Collins
minor
Also known as Simon Collins, Collins, honest Collins
A servant of the Harlowe family.
Mrs. Sorlings
minor
Also known as Mrs. Sorlings, Sorlings, widow Sorlings
A widow who shelters Clarissa in Hampstead.
Mr. Doleman
minor
Also known as Mr. Doleman, Doleman, Tom Doleman, honest Doleman
An acquaintance of Lovelace who provides lodging.
Mrs. Hodges
minor
Also known as Mrs. Hodges
A housekeeper at Harlowe Place.
Sir Harry Downeton
minor
Also known as Sir Harry Downeton, Sir Harry, Hal
A baronet and acquaintance of Lovelace.
Mr. Mennell
minor
Also known as Mr. Mennell, Mennell, Captain Mennell
A captain who assists Lovelace.
Captain Singleton
minor
Also known as Singleton, Captain Singleton
A sea captain and acquaintance of Lovelace.
Mrs. Fretchville
minor
Also known as Mrs. Fretchville, poor Mrs. Fretchville
A widow whose house Lovelace pretends to procure for Clarissa.
Miss Lardner
minor
Also known as Miss Lardner
A young lady acquaintance of Clarissa.
Mrs. Fortescue
minor
Also known as Mrs. Fortescue
A lady of Lovelace's acquaintance.
Miss Lloyd
minor
Also known as Miss Lloyd, Miss Biddy Lloyd, Biddy
A friend of Anna Howe.
Miss Biddulph
minor
Also known as Miss Biddulph, Biddulph, Miss Rachel Biddulph
A friend of Anna Howe.
Mr. Symmes
minor
Also known as Mr. Symmes, Mr. Edward Symmes
A clergyman who visits Clarissa.
Mr. Osgood
minor
Also known as Mr. Osgood, Osgood
A friend of the Harlowe family.
Mr. Hervey
minor
Also known as Mr. Hervey
A relative of the Harlowes.
Mrs. Harriot Lucas
minor
Also known as Mrs. Harriot Lucas, Mrs. Harry Lucas
A lady acquaintance of the Harlowes.
Mr. Tomkins
minor
Also known as Mr. Tomkins, Tomkins
A servant of the Harlowe family.
Mrs. Mary Atkins
minor
Also known as Mrs. Mary Atkins, Polly, the vile Polly
A prostitute in Mrs. Sinclair's house.
Miss Sally Anderson
minor
Also known as Miss Sally Anderson, Anderson
A young woman of questionable reputation.
Miss Playford
minor
Also known as Miss Playford
A young lady acquaintance.
Mr. Walton
minor
Also known as Mr. Walton, Dear Mr. Walton
A clergyman who attends Clarissa.
Colonel Ambrose
minor
Also known as Colonel Ambrose
A military man and friend of the Harlowes.
Mr. Rowe
minor
Also known as Mr. Rowe, Rowe
A friend of the family.
Miss Martin
minor
Also known as Miss Martin
A prostitute in Mrs. Sinclair's house.
Mrs. Leeson
minor
Also known as Mrs. Leeson, Leeson
A woman who keeps a house of ill repute.
Mrs. Rowland
minor
Also known as Mrs. Rowland, Rowland
A woman who keeps a sponging-house.
Mr. Mullins
minor
Also known as Mr. Mullins, Mullins
A lawyer consulted by the Harlowes.
Mr. Pomfret
minor
Also known as Mr. Pomfret
A clergyman who visits Clarissa.
Mr. Spurrier
minor
Also known as Mr. Spurrier
An attorney involved in Clarissa's affairs.
Mrs. Knolly
minor
Also known as Mrs. Knolly, the Knolly
A servant in Mrs. Sinclair's house.
Mrs. Rachel Clark
minor
Also known as Mrs. Rachel Clark, Rachel Clark
A woman who assists Clarissa.
Mr. Hartley
minor
Also known as Mr. Hartley
A friend of the Harlowe family.
Mrs. Hickman
minor
Also known as Mrs. Hickman
Mr. Hickman's mother.
