Getting Married · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Getting Married by George Bernard Shaw.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
Mrs. Bridgenorth
major
Also known as Mrs. George, Mrs. Bridgenorth George, Mrs. George Rising
As hostess and mother of the bride, Mrs. Bridgenorth moves through the wedding-day bustle with the ease of a woman who has done this many times before, trading dry pleasantries with Collins while the General bolts from the cake. Marriage, she insists, came natural to her — a claim that quietly sets her apart from her unmarried sister Lesbia and from Collins's own reluctant account of being broken into it. Her composure anchors the play's opening world and makes her a steady counterweight to the guests who want to argue marriage into a theory.
Reginald Hotchkiss
major
Also known as Sinjon Hotchkiss, Hotchkiss, Reginald, St. John Hotchkiss
Hotchkiss arrives at the wedding armed with statistics and mischief, insisting that the respectable Englishman who defends marriage cannot even say which marriage he means — civil, sacramental, polygamous, or South Dakotan. His gift for unanswerable quibbling exposes the muddle beneath everyone's pieties, and his refusal to let a comfortable phrase stand unchallenged makes him the play's sharpest irritant. He matters because he turns the breakfast table into a debating chamber where the real subject — what marriage is for — cannot be avoided.
Lesbia
major
Also known as Lesbia Grantham, Lesbia Alice, Miss Lesbia
Lesbia stands slightly apart from the wedding festivities, the sister whom Collins still hopes to marry off and whom Mrs. Bridgenorth has already written off as a permanent old maid. Her resistance is not coyness but principle: she weighs the economic and emotional costs of marriage and finds the bargain poor, a position Shaw treats with real sympathy rather than as a joke. Her presence forces the play to ask whether a woman can decline marriage without being diminished, and her exchanges sharpen the case against compulsory coupling.
Leo
major
Also known as Leo To Lesbia, Leo Naughty, Leo Weeping, Leo Rising
Leo is the young man who wants the wedding to mean what weddings are supposed to mean — love, permanence, a future — and who cannot understand why Lesbia keeps examining the contract instead of signing it. His emotional weather swings between pleading and indignation, and his sincerity is both his charm and his vulnerability in a household where everyone else has an argument ready. His pursuit of Lesbia gives the play its central romantic pressure and tests whether feeling can survive being cross-examined.
Collins
supporting
Also known as Mrs. Bridgenorth Collins, Mr. Collins, Mr. Alderman Collins, William Collins
Collins has superintended so many wedding breakfasts that he can joke about the General's flight from the cake while quietly revealing his own long accommodation to a marriage that never quite came natural to him. His affectionate, rueful account of a wife who locked the doors and made the engine driver promise to be careful — and of children who ran away from home — gives the play its warmest and most ambivalent testimony. He matters because his genial fatalism shows what the marriage debate looks like from inside a real one.
The General
supporting
Also known as General Bridgenorth, Mr. Bridgenorth
General Bridgenorth is a man of duty and habit who has done his paternal office at wedding after wedding and now finds the ritual unbearable in a way he cannot articulate. His abrupt exit from the cake — noted by Collins with affectionate amusement — hints at a private cost beneath the military bearing, and his traditionalism makes him a natural foil to the play's arguing guests. He matters as the silent, slightly wounded representative of the older generation whose marriages the younger characters are busy renegotiating.
Edith
supporting
Also known as Miss Edith, Edith Shocked, Edie, Edith Cecil
Edith stands at the center of the play's wedding party, sister to Lesbia and promised to Cecil Sykes, and it is her fate that the assembled company spends the day debating. Her anxiety is not merely jitters: Shaw uses her as the test case for whether any intelligent woman can enter marriage with her eyes open. Her hesitation gives the older characters room to argue their doctrines, and her choice will decide whether the play's critique ends in compromise or revolt.
Cecil Sykes
supporting
Also known as Cecil, Mr. Cecil Sykes, Sykes, poor Cecil
Cecil arrives at the wedding prepared to do the decent thing, only to find his bride's family treating matrimony as a problem in political economy rather than a sacrament. He is well-meaning but unarmed for the argument, and his mounting bewilderment makes him the audience's stand-in for common sense under siege. His fate hinges on whether good intentions can survive a room full of people who have read too much and believe too little.
The Bishop
supporting
Also known as Bishop, The Bishop Mrs. Collins
The Bishop represents established authority at the ceremony, called upon to bless a union whose premises the other guests are busy dismantling. His position is genuinely awkward: Christianity began as an attack on marriage, and his own celibate tradition sits uneasily beside the domestic rite he is performing. He matters because he embodies the institutional voice the play keeps interrogating — confident on the surface, exposed underneath.
Rejjy
minor
Also known as Uncle Rejjy, Leo Rejjy
A nickname for a family member, possibly Reginald, affectionate and teasing.
Soames
minor
Also known as Soames Woman, Soames Whispering, Mr. Soames
A servant or minor functionary in the household.
Boxer
minor
Also known as Uncle Boxer
An older relative, jovial and fond of the younger generation.
Polly
minor
Also known as Mrs. George Polly
A servant or companion, involved in household affairs.
Alfred
minor
Also known as Mrs. Bridgenorth Alfred
A male relative or guest, mentioned in passing.
Anthony
minor
Also known as Father Anthony, Mrs. George Anthony
A religious figure or elder, possibly a priest.
Alice
minor
Also known as Lesbia Alice
A young woman, possibly a friend or sister of Lesbia.
Slattox
minor
Also known as Edith Slattox
A surname mentioned in connection with Edith, possibly a suitor.
Major Billiter
minor
Also known as Billiter, The Billiter
A military acquaintance of the General.
The Beadle
minor
Also known as Beadle
A minor official present at the wedding ceremony.
