Character guide

Gabriel Conroy

major

Also known as Gabriel

Gabriel arrives at the Morkan sisters' annual dance as the favored nephew, expected to carve the goose and deliver the after-dinner speech. He is anxious about his wife Gretta's mood, his own continental affectations, and the awkward gap between his education and the company around him. His speech-making and his private fears set the emotional stakes for the evening's slow turn from sociability toward something more intimate and unsettling.

Little Chandler

major

Also known as Thomas Malone Chandler, Malone Chandler, Tommy, Tom

Chandler works at the King's Inns, takes care of his hands and hair, and dreams of writing poetry he never reads aloud to his wife. Meeting Gallaher after eight years stirs both admiration and a sharper envy he can barely name. His fragile self-regard and the gap between his fantasies and his circumstances make him a study in thwarted ambition.

Eveline Hill

major

Also known as Eve

Eveline keeps house for her father and brothers, spending her wages on provisions and enduring her father's moods. Frank offers her Buenos Aires, marriage, and a life she can barely imagine. Her struggle between the familiar and the unknown is the whole story's engine, and her hesitation carries the weight of every Dublin life left unlived.

Farrington

major

Farrington works under the pinched, egg-headed Mr. Alleyne, who berates him for missed contracts and long lunches. He escapes into pubs, pawns his watch, and nurses grievances that only sharpen with whiskey. His bulk and his thirst make him a portrait of a man whose anger has nowhere to go but down.

Maria

major

Also known as Polly Mooney, Polly, Mary, Mooney

Maria works at the Dublin by Lamplight laundry and is beloved for her peacemaking and her plumcake. She travels across town to Joe Donnelly's house, where she is welcomed but also gently mocked, and where a forgotten song stirs old grief. Her small rituals and her unspoken solitude make her one of the collection's most tender figures.

James Duffy

major

Also known as Mr. James Duffy, Mr. Duffy

Duffy lives alone in Chapelizod, avoids Dublin's social rituals, and keeps his thoughts in a tidy, self-flattering order. His friendship with Mrs. Sinico begins as intellectual confession and slides into something he cannot control. When she misreads his words, he cuts the tie cleanly, and the story follows the long shadow of that refusal.

Lenehan

supporting

Lenehan moves through Dublin's streets as a dependent wit, bright-eyed and quick to read a room, but always a step behind the bolder men he attaches himself to. He craves a share in Corley's conquests yet knows he must use tact to avoid being dismissed, and his anxious scrutiny of the woman at Hume Street reveals both his hunger and his exclusion. He matters because his watchfulness turns the story's small conspiracy into a portrait of Dublin's restless, sidelined poor.

Corley

supporting

Corley dominates the pavement with his solid boots and swaying head, confident that he can 'pull off' whatever scheme he and Lenehan have hatched. He is vain, calculating, and casually contemptuous of the women he pursues, brushing off his friend's advice while keeping the details of his plan to himself. His easy conquest of the woman in blue sets the story's moral machinery in motion, exposing how charm and self-regard pass for romance in Dublin.

Polly Mooney

supporting

Polly lives above the family boarding house, aware that she is being watched and that her mother's silence carries its own meaning. She is neither naive nor fully in control: she wants the affair to be thought her own wise innocence, yet she is also the object of a negotiation she cannot direct. Her awkwardness and her mother's patience together make her the still center of a story about respectability, leverage, and the small violences of family love.

Mrs. Mooney

supporting

Mrs. Mooney runs her house with the same economy she brings to her daughter's predicament, watching, waiting, and intervening only when the moment is ripe. She is not sentimental about reparation: she counts her cards, weighs social opinion, and prepares to confront Mr. Doran with the full force of an outraged mother. Her cold, methodical pursuit of a wedding turns a private scandal into a public transaction and gives the story its grim comic engine.

Mr. Doran

supporting

Mr. Doran has spent years cultivating a sober, regular life, and now finds it balanced on the edge of a scandal he cannot brazen out. He is torn between his instinct to remain free and the priest's magnified sense of sin, between contempt for Polly's vulgarity and the memory of his own complicity. His sweating, spectacles-fogging dread makes him the story's most human figure, caught between the fear of losing his job and the fear of being trapped.

Ignatius Gallaher

supporting

Also known as Gallaher, Mr. and Mrs. Ignatius Gallaher

Gallaher was the friend everyone remembered for his bold face and rakish set, the one who borrowed money and slipped out of a shady affair into a career on Fleet Street. His return stirs Little Chandler's envy and ambition, tempting him to imagine that success lies only in leaving Dublin. Gallaher's worldly ease and his old friend's restlessness together set the story's quiet tragedy of missed possibility in motion.

Mrs. Kearney

supporting

Mrs. Kearney has spent years engineering Kathleen's reputation—convent French, Academy fees, an Irish teacher, postcards in the language movement—until the name Miss Kathleen Kearney is heard on everyone's lips. When Mr. Holohan offers four concerts at the Ancient Concert Rooms, she pours the decanter, draws up the contract, and quietly takes over the whole enterprise. Her tact is real, but so is her ledger: every courtesy is an investment, and the story's early warmth curdles as the question of what Kathleen is owed comes due.

Kathleen Kearney

supporting

Also known as Miss Kathleen Kearney, Kathleen

Kathleen learned French and music at a good convent and now accompanies the Eire Abu Society's grand concerts for eight guineas, her blush-pink dress chosen by someone else. She is the family's showcase—proof of culture, faith, and the language movement—and the gap between her public glow and her private say in any of it is the quiet ache beneath the story. When the concert money is disputed, her silence becomes the measure of how little the evening was ever hers.

Mr. Holohan

supporting

Also known as Holohan, A Mother Mr. Holohan

Mr. Holohan arrives at the Kearneys' with a proposal and leaves with a contract, a glass of sherry, and a daily appointment for advice. He means well and knows he is out of his depth—capitals, small type, the first tenor's ego—so he lets Mrs. Kearney arrange everything, including the money. His helplessness is the hinge on which the story's later quarrel turns: a man too mild to hold a line is exactly the man someone else will hold it for.

Mr. Kernan

supporting

Also known as Kernan

Mr. Kernan has a stinging tongue, puffy cheeks like warm cinders, and a wife who has spent twenty-five years healing him without complaint. He books even small orders and never turns violent, so his intemperance passes as climate rather than crisis—until Cunningham, M'Coy, and Power decide to steer him toward a Jesuit retreat. He lies in bed apologising for the disorder of the room while looking at his guests a little proudly, unaware he is the object of a plot, and that oblivious dignity is the story's whole tender joke.

Mr. Cunningham

supporting

Also known as Martin Cunningham, Martin

Where Mr. Power supplies the idea of the retreat, Cunningham supplies the tact—the visits, the flattery, the careful timing that will get a proud, thirsty man through the chapel door. He moves through Dublin as a fixer of other people's souls, warm and slightly managerial, the friend everyone calls when a situation needs smoothing. His quiet competence sets the story's tone: grace here arrives by committee, arranged by men who know exactly how much a man's dignity weighs.

Mr. Browne

minor

Also known as Browne

A Protestant gentleman who accompanies the group to the Jesuit retreat.

Gretta Conroy

supporting

Also known as Gretta

Gretta moves through the Misses Morkan's annual dance as the graceful, laughing wife of the evening's star—until a melody on the stairs stops her cold and carries her somewhere Gabriel cannot follow. She is practical, warm, and entirely her own person, which is precisely what her husband has never quite noticed. Her private grief, held apart from the party's chatter, becomes the story's turning point: the moment the living learn they have been sharing a room with the dead.

Aunt Julia Morkan

supporting

Also known as Julia, Poor Aunt Julia, Miss Julia, Miss Morkan, Miss Julia Morkan

Julia Morkan is one of the two elderly sisters whose annual Christmas dance gathers Dublin's musical set into their candlelit rooms on Usher's Island. When the talk turns to goloshes and Continental fashions, she asks quietly what they are, and the smile fades from her face as the conversation moves past her. Her fading attention and uncomprehending nods register the distance between the aunts' old world and Gabriel's modern one, making her a quiet measure of what the party is silently losing.

Aunt Kate Morkan

supporting

Also known as Kate, Miss Kate

Kate Morkan co-hosts the Misses Morkans' annual dance, managing the room, the guests, and her sister's wandering attention with practiced cheer. She laughs heartily at Gabriel's goloshes joke, then redirects the conversation the moment it threatens to embarrass, and she is the one who notices that Lily is not the girl she was. Her brisk tact keeps the evening's surface intact, but her sharp eye for small defections hints at the anxieties beneath the hospitality.

Freddy Malins

minor

Also known as Malins, the sottish Malins

A drunken young man who arrives late to the Morkan party with his mother.

Miss Ivors

minor

A spirited nationalist who challenges Gabriel about his lack of Irish pride.

Lily

minor

Also known as The Dead Lily

The caretaker's daughter who helps at the Morkan party and speaks with Gabriel.

Mr. Henchy

supporting

Also known as Neither Mr. Henchy

Mr. Henchy moves through the shabby machinery of a local election, canvassing votes and trading small confidences with men who owe him. He is the kind of operator who knows which alderman drinks where and which promise can be quietly forgotten, and his talk is a mixture of flattery, insinuation, and self-interest. His presence in the collection anchors the political stories in the grubby, transactional Dublin that Joyce refuses to romanticise.

Mr. Hynes

minor

Also known as Hynes, Joe Hynes, Joe

A loyal follower of the late Parnell who canvasses for a different candidate.

Mr. O'Connor

minor

A canvasser who works alongside Mr. Henchy in the election campaign.

Mr. Crofton

minor

Also known as Crofton

A conservative canvasser who joins the group in the committee room.

Mr. M'Coy

minor

Also known as M'Coy

A friend of Lenehan who borrows a valise for his wife's supposed singing tour.

Leo Dillon

minor

Also known as Leo, Dillon

A timid schoolboy who fails to join the narrator and Mahony on their adventure.

Frank

minor

A sailor who courts Eveline and offers her a new life in Buenos Aires.

Charles Ségouin

minor

Also known as Ségouin, Moreover Ségouin, Charlie

A wealthy Frenchman who hosts the after-race party and drives a racing car.

Villona

minor

Also known as Decidedly Villona

A Hungarian pianist who accompanies the racing party and plays at dinner.

Jimmy Doyle

minor

Also known as Poor James, James, Jimmy

A young Irishman who invests in the racing venture and loses money at cards.

Miss Delacour

minor

A wealthy client who visits the law office where Farrington works.

Mr. Fitzpatrick

minor

The manager of the concert series who clashes with Mrs. Kearney over payment.

Mrs. Emily Sinico

minor

Also known as Mrs. Sinico, Miss Mary Sinico

A lonely woman who befriends Mr. Duffy and later dies in a railway accident.

Joe Donnelly

minor

Maria's former foster son who welcomes her on Halloween evening.

Mrs. Kernan

minor

The long-suffering wife of Mr. Kernan who supports his religious reformation.

Mr. Power

minor

A jovial friend of Mr. Cunningham who joins the effort to reform Mr. Kernan.

Father Purdon

minor

A Jesuit priest who delivers a sermon on business and religion at the retreat.

Mary Jane

minor

Also known as Molly

The niece of the Morkan sisters who gives piano lessons and plays at the party.

Mr. Bartell D'Arcy

minor

Also known as that Mr. D'Arcy, Bartell D'Arcy, Mr. D'Arcy, poor Mr. D'Arcy

A famous tenor who sings at the Morkan party and has a cold.

Michael Furey

minor

Also known as this Michael Furey

Gretta's deceased childhood sweetheart who died for love of her.

Mr. Lyons

minor

A man who argues about politics and betting in the committee room.

Mr. Fogarty

minor

Also known as Fogarty

A grocer who visits Mr. Kernan during his recovery and joins the retreat group.

Mr. Harford

minor

Also known as Harford

A moneylender who is discussed disapprovingly by the men at the retreat.

Old Cotter

minor

Also known as Mr. Cotter, old Cotter

A garrulous old man who comments on the death of Father Flynn.

Father James Flynn

minor

Also known as The Rev. James Flynn, James

A paralyzed priest whose death opens the story and haunts the young narrator.

Eliza

minor

Also known as Lizzie Fleming, Fleming

The sister of Father Flynn who discusses his death with the narrator's aunt.

Nannie

minor

The other sister of Father Flynn who greets visitors at his wake.

Mahony

minor

The narrator's adventurous school friend during their day of truancy.

Joe Dillon

minor

Also known as Joe

A boy who leads wild games of cowboys and Indians before entering the priesthood.

Mangan's Sister

minor

The unnamed girl the young narrator is infatuated with in Araby.

André Rivière

minor

Also known as Rivière

A French driver who competes in the race and socializes with the group.

Jack Mooney

minor

Also known as Jack

Polly's brother, a rough man who threatens Mr. Doran over his sister's honor.

Annie

minor

A servant in the boarding house who gossips about Polly and Mr. Doran.

Mr. Alleyne

minor

Also known as Simultaneously Mr. Alleyne, Alleyne

Farrington's harsh and mocking boss at the law firm.

Weathers

minor

A young acrobat who drinks with Farrington and beats him at arm wrestling.

Nosey Flynn

minor

A gossipy barfly who frequents Davy Byrne's pub and knows everyone's business.

Father Keon

minor

Also known as O Father Keon

A shabby, mysterious priest who visits the committee room on election day.

Old Jack

minor

Also known as Jack, Johnny

The elderly caretaker who tends the fire in the committee room.

Madam Glynn

minor

A faded soprano who auditions for the concert but is rejected.

Miss Beirne

minor

The woman who runs the refreshment stall at the concert.

Miss Healy

minor

A young woman who performs at the concert and is paid before the others.

Miss Furlong

minor

A young soprano who performs at the concert organized by Mrs. Kearney.

Captain Sinico

minor

The husband of Mrs. Sinico, who is mentioned in the aftermath of her death.

Miss Devlin

minor

A young woman who briefly dates Mr. Duffy before he becomes a recluse.

Father Butler

minor

Also known as Butler

A priest who scolds the schoolboys for reading Wild West stories.

Mrs. Mercer

minor

An elderly woman who collects stamps for a religious mission and visits Maria.

Ginger Mooney

minor

A coarse woman who works with Maria at the laundry and speaks roughly.

Alphy

minor

One of Maria's former foster children, mentioned as not getting along with his brother.

Mrs. Donnelly

minor

Joe Donnelly's wife who hosts Maria for the Halloween celebration.

Old Keegan

minor

An elderly man who lives in the boarding house and is mentioned in passing.

Miss Higgins

minor

Also known as Higgins

A young woman who works at the laundry with Maria.

Miss Daly

minor

A pianist who accompanies the singers at the Morkan party.

Miss O'Callaghan

minor

A young woman who flirts with Freddy Malins at the Morkan party.

Mrs. Malins

minor

Freddy Malins' elderly mother who attends the Morkan party with him.

Mr. Conroy

minor

Gabriel's father, mentioned in stories about his past at the party.

Paddy Leonard

minor

Also known as Pat, Leonard

A friend of Lenehan and Corley who appears briefly in the streets.