# Heretics — Character guide

> Key figures in Heretics by G. K. Chesterton.

- [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/unknown_narrator.md): 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
- [Mr. Bernard Shaw](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/mr_bernard_shaw.md): 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 c
- [Mr. H. G. Wells](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/mr_h_g_wells.md): 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 
- [Mr. McCabe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/mr_mccabe.md): 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 st
- [Mr. Rudyard Kipling](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/mr_rudyard_kipling.md): 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 imperi
- [Mr. George Moore](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/mr_george_moore.md): 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'
- [Mr. Whistler](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/mr_whistler.md): 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 wrong
- [Omar Khayyam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/omar_khayyam.md): A Persian poet and mathematician whose Rubaiyat is discussed in relation to hedonism.
- [Mr. Lowes Dickinson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/mr_lowes_dickinson.md): A historian and writer whose views on paganism are critiqued.
- [Stevenson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/stevenson.md): Robert Louis Stevenson, author whose works are referenced in literary criticism.
- [Ibsen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/ibsen.md): Norwegian playwright whose realistic dramas are discussed as modern heresies.
- [Jack the Giant-Killer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/jack_the_giant_killer.md): A fairy-tale hero used as a metaphor for combating modern intellectual giants.
- [Mr. Pearson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/mr_pearson.md): A newspaper proprietor criticized for sensationalist journalism.
- [The English Comtist](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/the_english_comtist.md): A representative figure of English positivism following Auguste Comte.
- [Jesus Christ](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/jesus_christ.md): Central figure of Christianity, referenced in theological and moral arguments.
- [The Irish](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/the_irish.md): The Irish people as a collective discussed in national character analysis.
- [Mr. Chesterton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/mr_chesterton.md): Likely the author himself, G.K. Chesterton, appearing as a character in his own work.
- [Nietzsche](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/nietzsche.md): German philosopher whose concept of the Superman is debated.
- [Plato](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/plato.md): Ancient Greek philosopher whose ideas are referenced in philosophical arguments.
- [Robert Browning](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/robert_browning.md): Victorian poet whose dramatic monologues are discussed.
- [Carlyle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/carlyle.md): Thomas Carlyle, essayist and historian referenced in cultural criticism.
- [Shakespeare](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/shakespeare.md): William Shakespeare, playwright whose works are cited as literary touchstones.
- [Auguste Comte](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/auguste_comte.md): French philosopher and founder of positivism, discussed in relation to modern thought.
- [Mr. Smith](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/mr_smith.md): A generic name used to illustrate arguments about common sense.
- [The Henleyites](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/the_henleyites.md): Followers of poet W.E. Henley, discussed as a literary group.
- [Mr. W. B. Yeats](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/mr_w_b_yeats.md): Irish poet and playwright, referenced in discussions of Celtic revival.
- [Walter Pater](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/walter_pater.md): English essayist and art critic, associated with aestheticism.
- [Dr. Johnson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/dr_johnson.md): Samuel Johnson, lexicographer and critic, cited for his wit and wisdom.
- [Ulysses](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/ulysses.md): The Greek hero Odysseus, used as a symbol of adventure and cunning.
- [Matthew Arnold](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/matthew_arnold.md): Victorian poet and critic, referenced in discussions of culture and anarchy.
- [Oliver Cromwell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/oliver_cromwell.md): English military and political leader, referenced in historical analogies.
- [Professor Walter Raleigh](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/professor_walter_raleigh.md): English scholar and literary critic, mentioned in academic contexts.
- [Swift](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/swift.md): Jonathan Swift, satirist and author of Gulliver's Travels, cited for his irony.
- [Mr. J. A. Kensit](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/mr_j_a_kensit.md): A Protestant activist known for opposing ritualism in the Church of England.
- [Dickens](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/dickens.md): Charles Dickens, novelist whose social commentary is referenced.
- [Bunyan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/bunyan.md): John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress, cited in religious allegory.
- [Oscar Wilde](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/oscar_wilde.md): Irish playwright and wit, referenced in discussions of aestheticism.
- [Byron](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/byron.md): Lord Byron, Romantic poet, referenced for his rebellious persona.
- [Mr. Frederic Harrison](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/mr_frederic_harrison.md): English historian and positivist, mentioned in intellectual debates.
- [Shelley and Swinburne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/shelley_and_swinburne.md): Poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Algernon Charles Swinburne, discussed together.
- [Sir Alfred Harmsworth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/sir_alfred_harmsworth.md): Newspaper magnate, criticized for influencing public opinion.
- [Mr. G. W. Foote](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/mr_g_w_foote.md): English secularist and editor, mentioned in freethought contexts.
- [Dante](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/dante.md): Dante Alighieri, Italian poet, cited for his Divine Comedy.
- [Dionysus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/dionysus.md): Greek god of wine and ecstasy, used as a mythological symbol.
- [Tolstoy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/tolstoy.md): Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist, referenced for his moral and religious views.
- [Thackeray](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/thackeray.md): William Makepeace Thackeray, novelist, cited in literary criticism.
- [Nelson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/nelson.md): Horatio Nelson, naval hero, or possibly a character from Dickens; used as reference.

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