# Howards End — Character guide

> Key figures in Howards End by E. M. Forster.

- [Margaret Schlegel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/howards_end_se/characters/margaret_schlegel.md): A clear-eyed, slightly weary intellectual who believes in connecting the seen and unseen, Margaret tries to reconcile her idealistic set with the Wilcoxes' brutal practicality.
- [Helen Schlegel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/howards_end_se/characters/helen_schlegel.md): The younger Schlegel sister, all impulse and generous indignation, who flings herself at life and feels every rebuff as a moral failure.
- [Henry Wilcox](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/howards_end_se/characters/henry_wilcox.md): A self-made imperial businessman who runs his family and his conscience like a ledger, valuing efficiency and 'the white man's burden' above all else.
- [Charles Wilcox](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/howards_end_se/characters/charles_wilcox.md): Henry's eldest son, a blustering, conventional man of business who sees the world in black and white and bristles at any threat to Wilcox property or propriety.
- [Ruth Wilcox](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/howards_end_se/characters/ruth_wilcox.md): Henry's first wife, a quiet, intuitive woman who belongs to Howards End more than to any person, and who recognizes a kindred spirit in Margaret.
- [Leonard Bast](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/howards_end_se/characters/leonard_bast.md): A poor insurance clerk who reads Ruskin by moonlight and dreams of culture, forever straining toward a world that keeps shutting the door in his face.
- [Tibby Schlegel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/howards_end_se/characters/tibby_schlegel.md): Tibby drifts through the Schlegel household in a haze of naps, meals, and half-finished sentences, leaving his sisters to manage the family's emotional weather. His studied indifference — he can barely rouse himself to a
- [Dolly Fussell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/howards_end_se/characters/dolly_fussell.md): Dolly enters the Wilcox orbit through a mixed foursome on the links, and her photograph — signed 'For dear Mims' — announces her as a new daughter-in-law eager to please. She is sweet, trivial, and entirely at home in th
- [Evie Wilcox](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/howards_end_se/characters/evie_wilcox.md): Henry and Ruth's daughter, a breezy and conventional young woman.
- [Paul Wilcox](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/howards_end_se/characters/paul_wilcox.md): Henry's younger son, who has a brief romantic entanglement with Helen.
- [Miss Avery](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/howards_end_se/characters/miss_avery.md): An eccentric old woman who lives near the Wilcoxes' country house.
- [Jacky Bast](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/howards_end_se/characters/jacky_bast.md): Jacky is the woman Leonard married out of a muddled sense of duty, and she trails through his cramped lodgings as a living reminder of the class he is trying to escape. Her vulgarity and dependence gnaw at his self-image
- [Aunt Juley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/howards_end_se/characters/aunt_juley.md): The Schlegel sisters' well-meaning but meddlesome aunt.
- [Crane](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/howards_end_se/characters/crane.md): A servant at the Wilcoxes' country house, Howards End.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/howards_end_se/characters