# Mr. George Moore — Heretics character guide

> Mr. George Moore in Heretics by G. K. Chesterton.

**Role:** supporting

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

**First appearance:** 0010-ix-the-moods-of-mr-george-moore

## Snapshot

An Irish aesthete who lives in a house of looking-glasses and resents any creed that insists other people actually exist.

## Who they are

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.

## Relationships

### [Stevenson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/stevenson)

_rivalry_

Moore and Stevenson are contrasted as literary figures, with the narrator critiquing Moore's realism against Stevenson's romance.

## In the story

### [Mr. H. G. Wells and the Giants](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/chapters/v-mr-h-g-wells-and-the-giants)

Contrasted with Wells as someone who leaps from one position to another.

### [Christmas and the Aesthetes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/chapters/vi-christmas-and-the-aesthetes)

Chesterton suggests Moore, despite collecting Irish paganism, likely does not keep Christmas or enjoy its vulgar festivities.

### [IX: The Moods of Mr. George Moore](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/chapters/ix-the-moods-of-mr-george-moore)

Subject of the chapter; criticized for his perpetual self-consciousness, pride, and inability to see beyond himself, despite genuine mental power.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters/mr_george_moore
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heretics_se/characters