# Patience Oriel — Doctor Thorne character guide

> Patience Oriel in Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Patience, Oriel, Dear Patience

**First appearance:** 0000-i-the-greshams-of-greshamsbury

## Snapshot

High-born, rich, fashionable, and beautiful, yet she treats the doctor's penniless niece as an equal — a friendship that quietly measures Mary's precarious place.

## Who they are

Miss Oriel moves through Barsetshire with every advantage Mary Thorne lacks: family, money, beauty, and the easy court that follows them. Yet she chooses Mary as a friend on equal terms, and her hundred-franc Paris bonnet becomes, in the doctor's drawing-room, a comic emblem of the world Mary can admire but not enter. Her kindness matters because it is voluntary — she loses nothing by it — and it throws into relief how quickly such friendship might dissolve if Mary's circumstances ever changed.

## In the story

### [Matrimonial Prospects](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/doctor_thorne_se/chapters/viii-matrimonial-prospects)

Mary observes her talking to Frank, causing jealousy.

### [XI: The Doctor Drinks His Tea](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/doctor_thorne_se/chapters/xi-the-doctor-drinks-his-tea)

Visits Mary and engages in playful banter about doctors versus parsons.

### [Retrospective](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/doctor_thorne_se/chapters/xxiii-retrospective)

Patience is the only person to whom Mary speaks freely about her situation, though the freedom is more intellectual than emotional.

### [War](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/doctor_thorne_se/chapters/xxvi-war)

Provides practical support and companionship to Mary, focusing on cheering her rather than dwelling on romance.

### [Mr. Oriel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/doctor_thorne_se/chapters/xxxii-mr-oriel)

Mr. Oriel's sister and confidante, who hopes he will marry and selects Beatrice Gresham as a suitable bride.

### [XLII: What Can You Give in Return?](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/doctor_thorne_se/chapters/xlii-what-can-you-give-in-return)

Briefly mentioned as coaxing Beatrice to the parsonage for domestic preparations.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/doctor_thorne_se/characters/patience_oriel
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/doctor_thorne_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/doctor_thorne_se/characters