Character guide

Unknown Narrator

major

Also known as your, mine, myself

He opens by noticing a strange modern inversion: heresy now earns applause while orthodoxy earns a smirk, and no one any longer cares whether a philosophy is true. His driving desire is to drag cosmic questions back onto the tea-table, insisting that a man's view of the universe matters more than his view of tramcars. That stubborn insistence gives the book its spine, turning each portrait of a contemporary thinker into a test of whether anything is still worth believing.

Mr. Bernard Shaw

major

Also known as Mr. Shaw, IV Mr. Bernard Shaw, Bernard Shaw, a Mr. Bernard Shaw

Chesterton treats Shaw as the wittiest of the moderns, a man whose plays sparkle precisely because he cannot stop preaching. The tension is that Shaw wants to be taken as a prophet while dodging the burden of any fixed creed, and Chesterton keeps catching him in the contradiction. Debating Shaw lets the book sharpen its central question: whether a man can be sincere and funny at once, and whether a joke can carry a dogma.

Mr. H. G. Wells

major

Also known as Mr. Wells, V Mr. H. G. Wells, Wells

Chesterton watches Wells trade cosmic frivolity for parochial earnestness, growing more careful as his subject shrinks from the end of the world to the beginning of the world. The comedy is affectionate but pointed: the boldest artist of 1895 has become the most didactic, writing with a purpose he would once have laughed at. Wells matters because he embodies the book's worry that modern thinkers abandon the large questions just when they claim to be most serious.

Mr. McCabe

supporting

Also known as XVI On Mr. McCabe, The McCabe

McCabe charges that rocket-metaphors and literary sleight-of-hand cannot settle important questions, and Chesterton grants his complete sincerity before dismantling the charge. The quarrel turns on whether a grotesque style can carry a grave motive, with Chesterton insisting that funny is the opposite of not funny and of nothing else. McCabe gives the book its cleanest foil: a man so earnest he cannot see that a joke may be the shortest route to truth.

Mr. Rudyard Kipling

supporting

Also known as Rudyard Kipling, Mr. Kipling, Kipling, a Mr. Rudyard Kipling

Chesterton admires Kipling's arresting art while noting the paradox that the gods gave him originality, which is disagreement with others, and he desires divinely to agree with them. The tension is between the raw imperial energy of Soldiers Three and the respectable laureate posture Kipling reaches for. He stands with Shaw and Wells as proof that the boldest modern artists turn out to be the most didactic, smuggling dogma into every striking line.

Mr. George Moore

supporting

Also known as Mr. George Moore Mr. George Moore, Mr. Moore, George

Moore's quarrel with Catholicism, Chesterton argues, is not really about miracles or sacraments but about the dogma of the reality of this world, which shatters the dream he prefers to mould. His pride, unlike Stevenson's windy vanity, is solitary and dries up laughter, wonder, and chivalry. He matters as the book's portrait of the aesthete who has brushed Stevenson aside and cannot understand Thackeray, a man whose brilliancies stay barren because he will not let anything outside himself be real.

Mr. Whistler

supporting

Also known as Whistler, James McNeill Whistler

Whistler serves Chesterton as the working specimen of a modern heresy: the artist who mistakes his own sensitivity for a philosophy. Where Swift's satire burned with sorrow for mankind, Whistler's wrongs are always wrongs done to himself, and his laughter never escapes his own mirror. He matters because Chesterton uses him to argue that real greatness can forget art, while the artistic temperament is a disease that cannot produce any.

Omar Khayyam

minor

Also known as Omar

A Persian poet and mathematician whose Rubaiyat is discussed in relation to hedonism.

Mr. Lowes Dickinson

minor

Also known as Mr. Lowes

A historian and writer whose views on paganism are critiqued.

Stevenson

minor

Robert Louis Stevenson, author whose works are referenced in literary criticism.

Ibsen

minor

Also known as genial old Ibsen

Norwegian playwright whose realistic dramas are discussed as modern heresies.

Jack the Giant-Killer

minor

Also known as Jack

A fairy-tale hero used as a metaphor for combating modern intellectual giants.

Mr. Pearson

minor

Also known as Pearson, Mr. C. Arthur Pearson, Arthur

A newspaper proprietor criticized for sensationalist journalism.

The English Comtist

minor

Also known as the solid English Comtist, the English, The English

A representative figure of English positivism following Auguste Comte.

Jesus Christ

minor

Also known as Christ

Central figure of Christianity, referenced in theological and moral arguments.

The Irish

minor

Also known as Irish

The Irish people as a collective discussed in national character analysis.

Mr. Chesterton

minor

Likely the author himself, G.K. Chesterton, appearing as a character in his own work.

Nietzsche

minor

Also known as the Superman, Nietzsche's Superman, Nietszche

German philosopher whose concept of the Superman is debated.

Plato

minor

Ancient Greek philosopher whose ideas are referenced in philosophical arguments.

Robert Browning

minor

Also known as Browning

Victorian poet whose dramatic monologues are discussed.

Carlyle

minor

Thomas Carlyle, essayist and historian referenced in cultural criticism.

Shakespeare

minor

William Shakespeare, playwright whose works are cited as literary touchstones.

Auguste Comte

minor

Also known as Comte

French philosopher and founder of positivism, discussed in relation to modern thought.

Mr. Smith

minor

Also known as Smith

A generic name used to illustrate arguments about common sense.

The Henleyites

minor

Followers of poet W.E. Henley, discussed as a literary group.

Mr. W. B. Yeats

minor

Irish poet and playwright, referenced in discussions of Celtic revival.

Walter Pater

minor

Also known as Pater

English essayist and art critic, associated with aestheticism.

Dr. Johnson

minor

Also known as Johnson

Samuel Johnson, lexicographer and critic, cited for his wit and wisdom.

Ulysses

minor

Also known as the real Ulysses

The Greek hero Odysseus, used as a symbol of adventure and cunning.

Matthew Arnold

minor

Victorian poet and critic, referenced in discussions of culture and anarchy.

Oliver Cromwell

minor

Also known as Cromwell

English military and political leader, referenced in historical analogies.

Professor Walter Raleigh

minor

Also known as Raleigh, Professor Raleigh

English scholar and literary critic, mentioned in academic contexts.

Swift

minor

Jonathan Swift, satirist and author of Gulliver's Travels, cited for his irony.

Mr. J. A. Kensit

minor

Also known as Mr. Kensit

A Protestant activist known for opposing ritualism in the Church of England.

Dickens

minor

Charles Dickens, novelist whose social commentary is referenced.

Bunyan

minor

John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress, cited in religious allegory.

Oscar Wilde

minor

Irish playwright and wit, referenced in discussions of aestheticism.

Byron

minor

Lord Byron, Romantic poet, referenced for his rebellious persona.

Mr. Frederic Harrison

minor

English historian and positivist, mentioned in intellectual debates.

Shelley and Swinburne

minor

Poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Algernon Charles Swinburne, discussed together.

Sir Alfred Harmsworth

minor

Also known as the Harmsworth mind

Newspaper magnate, criticized for influencing public opinion.

Mr. G. W. Foote

minor

Also known as Mr. Foote

English secularist and editor, mentioned in freethought contexts.

Dante

minor

Dante Alighieri, Italian poet, cited for his Divine Comedy.

Dionysus

minor

Greek god of wine and ecstasy, used as a mythological symbol.

Tolstoy

minor

Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist, referenced for his moral and religious views.

Thackeray

minor

William Makepeace Thackeray, novelist, cited in literary criticism.

Nelson

minor

Also known as little Nell

Horatio Nelson, naval hero, or possibly a character from Dickens; used as reference.

Mr. Chamberlain

minor

Also known as Mr. Austen Chamberlain

A British politician referenced in discussions of contemporary politics.

Cecil Rhodes

minor

Also known as Rhodes

British imperialist and businessman whose colonial legacy is mentioned.

Mr. Anthony Hope

minor

Also known as Mr. Hope

A novelist whose adventure stories are mentioned in literary critique.

Milton

minor

John Milton, poet whose works are cited in discussions of heresy and orthodoxy.

Mr. Blatchford

minor

A socialist writer and journalist whose views are critiqued.

The Japanese

minor

The Japanese people as a collective discussed in cultural comparisons.

Olive Schreiner

minor

South African author and feminist, referenced in literary discussions.

Julius Caesar

minor

Also known as Caesar

Roman dictator, used as a historical example of ambition and power.

Vikings

minor

Also known as the Vikings

Norse seafarers, discussed as a historical people in cultural analysis.

Achilles

minor

Greek hero of the Trojan War, used as a symbol of martial valor.

Thor

minor

Norse god of thunder, used as a mythological reference.

Clive

minor

Robert Clive, British colonial administrator, referenced in imperial history.

Darwin

minor

Charles Darwin, naturalist, referenced in discussions of evolution.

Celts

minor

Also known as XIII Celts, the Celts

The Celtic peoples, discussed in relation to national identity and culture.

Grenville

minor

Possibly Sir Richard Grenville, Elizabethan sailor, referenced in history.

Essex

minor

Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, Elizabethan courtier, mentioned historically.

Ruskin

minor

John Ruskin, art critic and social thinker, referenced in aesthetic debates.