Character guide

My Father

major

Also known as Mr. Higgs, Higgs, the Sunchild

Once a curious explorer who escaped Erewhon by balloon, he now slips back incognito to see the temple raised in his honor, only to find his casual words and habits hardened into sacred dogma. He is torn between the pull of old affections—Yram, the son he never knew—and the danger of exposure, since the priests who profit from Sunchildism would rather silence him than let him correct the record. His presence forces the novel's central collision between private memory and public myth.

George

major

Also known as XII George, George Strong

Raised as the Mayor's son but secretly the Sunchild's, George moves through Erewhonian society with the easy authority of a man who knows more than he says. He is loyal to his mother, fond of his father, and coldly resourceful against Hanky and Panky, whom he outmaneuvers with legal traps and swapped boots. His double position—insider and secret kinsman—makes him the hinge on which the rescue plot turns.

Professor Hanky

major

Also known as Hanky, the Sunchild, Professor, XVI Professor Hanky

Hanky has built a career on the Sunchild's supposed miracles, complete with canonries, rites, and a study that happened to burn on a very useful night. He is vain, easily rattled, and ruthless when his authority is questioned—especially by Yram, whose stubbornness about the Sunchild's clothes nearly wrecked the whole fabrication. His fear of exposure drives the early hunt for the returned Higgs.

Professor Panky

major

Also known as Panky, Professor, Even Panky

Where Hanky blusters, Panky insinuates, and together they steer the King and the credulous public toward a convenient orthodoxy. He is the one who reminds Hanky how nearly Yram wrecked them, and who treats the Sunchild's blood in the country as a useful fiction to be managed. His wary pragmatism makes him the more formidable of the two priests.

Yram

major

Also known as Mayoress, the Mayoress, VIII Yram, Now Mayoress

Adored by the common people and feared by the priests, Yram has spent twenty years guarding a secret about her son's parentage while outwardly playing the Mayor's loyal wife. Her old stubbornness about how the Sunchild wore his clothes made her a sceptic in Hanky's eyes, and her sharp cross-questioning of the Professors is what first reveals Higgs's return. She is the emotional and moral center of the rescue.

Dr. Downie

supporting

Also known as Hanky Dr. Downie, the celebrated Dr. Downie

Downie belongs to the circle of Sunch'ston worthies who dine with Hanky and Panky and find themselves entangled in the affair of the returned Sunchild. When George springs his depositions on the Professors, Downie is frightened rather than defiant, a bystander swept up in a scheme he did not devise. His presence among the witnesses underscores how thoroughly the priests' own associates are implicated in the crisis.

Mrs. Humdrum

supporting

Also known as Old Mrs. Humdrum, XX Mrs. Humdrum

Mrs. Humdrum belongs to the respectable stratum of Sunch'ston society that Yram can summon to dinner without embarrassment, yet her second daughter married for love and bore too many children to bring money with her. That dowryless granddaughter is nonetheless the girl George has loved since childhood, so Mrs. Humdrum's respectability and her family's improvidence sit awkwardly together. She matters because the coming marriage knots George, Yram, and the Higgs fortune into one household, making her a quiet hinge on which the plot's domestic arrangements turn.

Mr. Balmy

supporting

Mr. Balmy is the sort of friendly stranger whose helpfulness opens a narrative door, guiding the disguised Higgs across country toward the town where his old identity is now a religion. His easy goodwill is genuine, but it also demonstrates how thoroughly the Sunchild myth has saturated everyday Erewhonian life, so that even casual kindness now runs through the channels of the new faith. He matters because his guidance delivers Higgs into the world he must navigate incognito, and his unguarded talk gives the reader the first taste of how the legend has grown.

President Gurgoyle

minor

Also known as Dr. Gurgoyle, XI President Gurgoyle, the venerable Dr. Gurgoyle

An Erewhonian academic who writes a pamphlet on vicarious existence.

Mr. Cathie

minor

Also known as Alfred, Mr. Alfred Cathie

A young man who becomes engaged to George's sister.

The Narrator

supporting

Also known as Unknown, my father's son

The narrator stands outside the action as its editor and heir, quoting his father's manuscript while insisting on his own Broad Church sympathies and his suspicion of anyone who says one thing and hides another. His filial duty to preserve Higgs's account is complicated by the awkwardness of a father who has become a god to strangers and a prig to his own family. He matters because his framing voice sets the book's skeptical, ironic temperature, teaching the reader to watch the new religion of Sunchildism with the same wary eye he turns on his own father.

Head Ranger

minor

Also known as The Head Ranger, Ranger, The Ranger

An Erewhonian official who guards the pass into Erewhon.

Mr. Baker

minor

Also known as Baker

An Erewhonian baker mentioned in passing.

Mr. Turvey

minor

Also known as Turvey

An Erewhonian character with limited presence.

Chowbok

minor

A former Erewhonian acquaintance of my father.

Bishop Kahabuka

minor

A bishop mentioned in the narrative.

Mrs. Tantrums

minor

An Erewhonian woman mentioned in the council.

Mr. Mayor

minor

The Mayor of Sunch'ston, Yram's husband.

Old Doctor

minor

Also known as Doctor

An elderly Erewhonian doctor mentioned in passing.

Mr. Principal Crank

minor

Also known as Principal Crank

An Erewhonian principal involved in the council.

Zulora

minor

A female Erewhonian character mentioned briefly.

Mrs. Bawl

minor

An Erewhonian woman with a minor role.

Harris

minor

A character mentioned briefly in the narrative.

The Stranger

minor

An unnamed stranger encountered by my father.

Professor of Logomachy

minor

An Erewhonian professor of word-fighting.

Bridgeford Professor

minor

Also known as a Bridgeford Professor

A professor from Bridgeford University.

Young Mr. Strong

minor

Also known as Strong, Mr. Strong

A young Erewhonian man mentioned in the narrative.