Character guide

Henry David Thoreau

major

Also known as Thoreau, Henry, Mr. Thoreau, H. D. T.

Thoreau is the narrator and central consciousness of these essays — a Concord surveyor, pencil-maker's son, and born Protestant who declines to trade his solitary freedom for any narrow craft. His defining tension is between perfect probity toward himself and the disappointed expectations of family and friends who wanted him to choose a lucrative path. He matters because every essay in the collection is filtered through this stubborn, precise, and quietly radical sensibility, whether he is defending John Brown or measuring a pond.

Sir Walter Raleigh

supporting

Also known as Raleigh, Sir Walter, Ralegh, Sir Walter Ralegh

Raleigh moves through Elizabeth's court as a knight in service to his mistress rather than a subject to his sovereign, his genius pulled between Virginia plantations and the favors of the throne. Thoreau finds him most bearable not as a courtier but as the patron of colonization and an early champion of naval architecture, a man whose pursuits were so varied they overshadow his fame. His kinship with Sir Philip Sidney — two moulds of the same true knight — gives the essay its meditation on what ambition costs a gifted man.

Thomas Carlyle

supporting

Also known as Carlyle, Mr. Carlyle

Carlyle appears in these essays as the great master of free, brave, original writing — a genuine Yankee style without fiction, full of real guessing and calculating. Thoreau's tension with him is affectionate but exacting: he wishes the torrent would sometimes spread into bottomless mountain tarns and inland seas rather than always falling headlong to the plain. Carlyle matters because he embodies the question of how a serious thinker should sound when the house is on fire, a question Thoreau keeps returning to in his own anti-slavery writing.

Captain John Brown

supporting

Also known as John Brown, Captain Brown, Brown, crazy John Brown

Brown is an old-fashioned man in his respect for the Constitution and his faith in the Union, yet slavery he deems wholly opposed to both — a contradiction he resolves by facing his country herself when she is in the wrong. Thoreau presents him as firmer and higher principled than the men who stood at Concord Bridge, a deliberate, practical man of great common sense who sent his sons to Kansas and followed with hand and counsel. He matters because Thoreau's defense of him tests the essayist's own creed of conscience against law to its breaking point.

Joe Aitteon

supporting

Also known as Joe, Aitteon

Aitteon serves as Thoreau's companion and guide on the Maine expedition, moving through country he knows intimately while Thoreau measures, observes, and records. The tension is quiet but real: Thoreau is incurious of technical and textual science yet endlessly hungry for natural facts, and Aitteon's lived knowledge of the land offers a counterpoint to the surveyor's instruments. He matters because his presence keeps the wilderness essays grounded in actual human company rather than solitary reverie.

The Landlord

supporting

Also known as the landlord, The landlord

The Landlord is Thoreau's allegorical figure of hospitality, a self-appointed brother of his race who feeds and shelters men from pure love of the creatures rather than charity or philanthropy. His flaw is also his glory: he would sacrifice the tender ties of private friendship for a broad, sunshiny friendship with all humanity, so that even his neighbor of years receives only the civilities of the road. He matters because he embodies Thoreau's meditation on the tavern as the most sacred roof — the one that shelters most of humanity.

Aulus Persius Flaccus

minor

Also known as Persius

Roman satirist; Thoreau translates and discusses his poetry.

Homer

minor

Also known as Homer and Confucius

Ancient Greek poet; referenced as a heroic bard.

Ossian

minor

Legendary Gaelic bard; subject of a comparative essay.

Chaucer

minor

English poet; Thoreau examines his earthy realism.

Wendell Phillips

minor

Also known as Wendell Phillips, Mr. Phillips

Abolitionist orator; Thoreau praises his eloquence.

Shakespeare

minor

English playwright; referenced as a literary touchstone.

Goethe

minor

German poet and philosopher; admired by Thoreau.

Sir Philip Sidney

minor

Also known as Philip, Sidney

Elizabethan poet and courtier; example of chivalric virtue.

General Washington

minor

Also known as Washington

First U.S. president; invoked as a symbol of integrity.

Mr. Rogers

minor

Also known as Nathaniel P. Rogers

Abolitionist editor; Thoreau references his reform efforts.

Neptune

minor

Also known as Governor Neptune

Roman god of the sea; appears in classical allusions.

Mr. Loring

minor

Local official or acquaintance mentioned in passing.

Virgil

minor

Roman poet; cited as a model of pastoral literature.

Julius Caesar

minor

Also known as Caesar

Roman general and dictator; historical example of ambition.

Plato

minor

Greek philosopher; referenced in discussions of ideal forms.

Wordsworth

minor

English Romantic poet; quoted on nature and imagination.

Samuel Champlain

minor

Also known as Champlain

French explorer of Canada; mentioned in travel narrative.

Christ

minor

Central figure of Christianity; invoked as moral exemplar.

Queen Elizabeth

minor

Also known as Elizabeth

Tudor monarch; patron of Raleigh and exploration.

Michaux

minor

Also known as The younger Michaux

French botanist who studied North American flora.

Milton

minor

English poet; author of Paradise Lost; cited on liberty.

Emerson

minor

Also known as Mr. George B. Emerson

Transcendentalist philosopher and Thoreau's mentor.

Anthony Burns

minor

Also known as Burns

Fugitive slave whose capture sparked protests in Boston.

Dante

minor

Italian poet; author of The Divine Comedy.

King George III

minor

Also known as King George, George

British monarch during American Revolution; symbol of tyranny.

Orpheus

minor

Mythical Greek musician; symbol of poetic power.

Edward Irving

minor

Also known as Irving

Scottish clergyman; mentioned in Carlyle essay.

Muhammad

minor

Prophet of Islam; cited as a heroic reformer.

Ben Jonson

minor

Also known as Jonson

Elizabethan playwright and poet; contemporary of Shakespeare.

Pliny

minor

Roman naturalist; author of Natural History.

Jacques Cartier

minor

Also known as Cartier

French explorer of the St. Lawrence River.

The St. Francis Indian

minor

Also known as the Indian, clear Indian, Indian

Native American encountered on a steamer journey.

The Old Man

minor

Also known as the old man

Elderly figure encountered in travel or allegory.

The Hero

minor

Generic heroic figure in philosophical passages.

The Soul

minor

Also known as Soul

Personified inner self in transcendental reflections.

The State

minor

Personified government in civil disobedience essay.

The English

minor

Also known as English, English Phillips

National group referenced in travel observations.

The French

minor

Also known as French, reputed French

National group encountered in Canadian travels.

The Canadians

minor

Also known as Canadians, French Canadians

Local inhabitants observed during Quebec journey.

The Indians

minor

Also known as Indians, the Indians Sebug

Native American groups referenced in travel and history.

Mr. Etzler

minor

Also known as Etzler

Author of a utopian technological scheme; Thoreau critiques him.

Oliver Cromwell

minor

Also known as Cromwell

English military and political leader; cited as a heroic figure.

Schiller

minor

German poet and playwright; quoted on freedom and art.

Tahmunt Swasen

minor

Also known as Tahmunt

Native American encountered during Thoreau's Maine travels.

Sabattis Solomon

minor

Also known as Sabattis, Solomon

Native American guide in the Maine woods.

Diana

minor

Roman goddess of the hunt; mentioned in poetic contexts.

Thomson

minor

Poet referenced in discussions of nature writing.

Humboldt

minor

German naturalist and explorer; admired for scientific curiosity.

John Winthrop

minor

Also known as Winthrop, John

First governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony; historical reference.

Alexander Milne

minor

Also known as Alexander

Scottish poet or acquaintance; minor reference.

Coleridge

minor

English poet and critic; cited on imagination.

Sir John Franklin

minor

Also known as Franklin, John

Arctic explorer; his disappearance noted in passing.

Richter

minor

German writer; quoted on humor and philosophy.

Sir Henry Wotton

minor

Also known as Wotton

English diplomat and poet; cited on travel and observation.

Paley

minor

English theologian; referenced on natural religion.

Kalm

minor

Swedish-Finnish botanist; traveled in North America.

Marlowe

minor

Elizabethan playwright; referenced in literary context.

Horace Greeley

minor

Also known as Horace

Newspaper editor; Thoreau corresponded with him.

Linnaeus

minor

Swedish botanist; father of modern taxonomy.

John Smith

minor

Also known as Smith

English explorer of Virginia; early colonial figure.

Guyot

minor

Swiss-American geographer; cited on physical geography.

Luther

minor

German Protestant reformer; example of moral courage.

Epaminondas

minor

Theban general; example of ancient heroism.

Josselyn

minor

Also known as Old Josselyn

Early New England naturalist and writer.

Charlevoix

minor

French Jesuit historian of New France.

Dr. Kane

minor

Also known as Kane

American Arctic explorer; mentioned in passing.

Pizarro

minor

Also known as The Pizarro

Spanish conquistador of Peru; example of greed.

Giordano Bruno

minor

Also known as Bruno

Italian philosopher burned for heresy; symbol of free thought.

F. B. Sanborn

minor

Abolitionist and Thoreau's friend; helped John Brown.

A Priest in the Streets

minor

Religious figure observed during a walk in Quebec.

The Judge

minor

Legal authority figure in a moral anecdote.

The Yankees

minor

Also known as Yankees

New Englanders contrasted with other groups.

The Highlanders

minor

Scottish soldiers or settlers in Canada.