Main Street · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Main Street by Sinclair Lewis.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
Carol Kennicott
major
Also known as Carol Milford, Carrie, Miss Milford, the alien Carol
A restless St. Paul idealist who marries a small-town doctor and finds Gopher Prairie both a cause to fight for and a trap she can't quite escape.
Dr. Will Kennicott
major
Also known as Kennicott, Dr. Kennicott, Billy, Doc Kennicott
A bluff, competent country doctor who loves his wife, his car, and his duck-blind, and cannot fathom why any of it should ever be questioned.
Vida Sherwin
supporting
Also known as Miss Sherwin, Vida, Miss Vida Sherwin
A chipmunk-energetic schoolteacher who recruits Carol for Gopher Prairie's causes, offering friendship and Sunday School in the same eager breath.
Guy Pollock
supporting
Also known as Pollock, gray Guy Pollock
A gentle, dusty-office lawyer whose cultured sensibility and quiet loneliness make him the one man in town Carol can imagine talking to.
Erik Valborg
supporting
Also known as Valborg, this Erik Valborg
A dreamy young tailor who reads poetry and imagines Italian châteaux, and who mistakes Carol for the escape his small-town life keeps promising.
Bea Sorenson
supporting
Also known as Miss Bea Sorenson, Bea
A cheerful Swedish-American hired girl whose plain good sense and steady affection offer Carol a warmth the town's polite ladies never quite manage.
Miles Bjornstam
supporting
Also known as Bjornstam, old Miles, the Red Swede
Miles Bjornstam is the village's resident heretic, a laborer whose open contempt for boosters, bankers, and church socials makes him both an embarrassment and a strange relief. He nurses a stubborn, unrequited tenderness for Bea Sorenson, the Kennicotts' hired girl, and his blunt honesty cuts through the town's polite fictions. For Carol, he becomes proof that not everyone in Gopher Prairie has surrendered to its creed of cheerful conformity.
Cyrus N. Bogart
supporting
Also known as Cy Bogart, Bogart
Cy Bogart is the town's busybody-in-chief, forever sniffing out impropriety and reporting it with pious relish to anyone who will listen. His meddling turns private lives into public property, and his feuds with the Kennicotts and the schoolteacher Fern Mullins expose how quickly a small town can ruin someone for sport. He embodies the censorious underside of Main Street's neighborliness, the part that mistakes surveillance for virtue.
Sam Clark
supporting
Also known as Clark, Samuel
Sam Clark is the kind of man everyone in Gopher Prairie counts as a friend — a back-slapping merchant who sings at the Kennicotts' piano and believes wholeheartedly in the town's bright future. His warmth is genuine, but it comes bundled with an unexamined loyalty to the status quo that quietly baffles Carol. He represents the comfortable, decent face of the conformity she cannot quite hate or escape.
Fern Mullins
supporting
Also known as Miss Mullins, Miss Fern Mullins
Fern Mullins arrives in town fresh from college, eager to teach and unafraid to laugh too loudly or stay out too late. Her easy rapport with students and her independence of manner scandalize the town's matrons, who transform a harmless escapade into a ruinous reputation. Her fate dramatizes how swiftly Main Street punishes any woman who refuses to be dull, and it hardens Carol's growing suspicion that the town devours its own.
Juanita Haydock
supporting
Also known as Haydock, poor Juanita
Juanita Haydock presides over the Jolly Seventeen's chatter with a flair that Carol initially dismisses as vulgarity and later comes to appreciate as genuine social intelligence. Her running commentary on neighbors, husbands, and the price of things is both entertainment and a map of the town's hierarchies. Through her, Carol learns that the women she once scorned as shallow are actually navigating a narrow world with considerable skill.
Raymie Wutherspoon
supporting
Also known as Raymie, Only Raymie, Major Raymond Wutherspoon
Raymie Wutherspoon is the town's most unassuming man, a soft-spoken salesman who fusses over window displays and apologizes for existing. Under Vida Sherwin's encouragement he begins to imagine himself as a figure of authority — even a major — and his halting self-assertion becomes one of the novel's quiet comedies. His courtship of Vida offers a rare glimpse of tenderness and mutual respect in a town that mostly trades in judgment.
Mrs. Bogart
supporting
Also known as the Widow Bogart, Ma Bogart, Auntie Bogart
Mrs. Bogart presides over the town's moral weather from a porch chair, cataloguing sins she has mostly inferred and reporting them as fact. Her righteousness is genuine but inseparable from her appetite for other people's business, and she treats Carol's city manners as evidence requiring investigation. She matters because she gives a face and a voice to the surveillance that makes Gopher Prairie feel airless, turning neighborliness into a test Carol keeps failing.
Percy Bresnahan
supporting
Also known as Bresnahan, Perce, the great Percy Bresnahan
Bresnahan returns from the outside world trailing money, machinery, and the town's reflected pride, and he enjoys both the admiration and the distance it buys him. He is polished, confident, and fundamentally uninterested in the place that produced him, which makes him irresistible to a woman hungry for largeness. His brief, dazzling presence sharpens Carol's sense of what Gopher Prairie lacks and quietly measures her against her husband.
Dave Dyer
minor
Also known as Dyer, Mr. Dave Dyer
The town druggist and a member of the local social circle.
Maud Dyer
minor
Also known as Mrs. Dyer, Maud
Dave Dyer's hypochondriac wife, often jealous of Carol.
Harry Haydock
minor
Also known as Haydock, Mrs. Haydock
The son of the town's leading merchant, married to Juanita.
Aunt Bessie Smail
minor
Also known as Aunt Bessie, an Aunt Bessie
Carol's aunt who raised her after her parents' death.
Luke Dawson
minor
Also known as old Luke, Mr. Dawson
An elderly, miserly farmer and one of the town's wealthier citizens.
Uncle Whittier Smail
minor
Also known as Whittier, Uncle Whittier
Carol's gruff, conservative uncle who disapproves of her ideas.
Dr. Terry Gould
minor
Also known as Dr. Gould, Terry, Dr. Terence Gould
A young, flashy doctor who competes with Kennicott.
Ezra Stowbody
minor
Also known as Stowbody, old Ezra Stowbody
The pompous, old-fashioned president of the local bank.
Ella Stowbody
minor
Also known as Miss Ella Stowbody, Miss Stowbody
Ezra Stowbody's spinster daughter, a faded gentlewoman.
Nat Hicks
minor
Also known as Nat, Hicks
A local carpenter and handyman, part of the town's working class.
Ethel Villets
minor
Also known as Miss Ethel Villets, Miss Villets
A prim, gossipy librarian in Gopher Prairie.
James Blausser
minor
Also known as Mr. Blausser, Honest Jim, Honest Jim Blausser
A bombastic booster who tries to lead a town improvement campaign.
Champ Perry
minor
Also known as the Perrys, old Champ Perry
An elderly pioneer and former storekeeper, respected by the community.
Mrs. Champ Perry
minor
Also known as old Mrs. Champ Perry, Mrs. Perry
Champ Perry's gentle, old-fashioned wife.
Lyman Cass
minor
Also known as Cass, Lym Cass
The stern, silent owner of the town's flour mill.
Myrtle Cass
minor
Also known as Miss Cass, Myrtle
Lyman Cass's awkward, unhappy daughter.
Jack Elder
minor
Also known as Elder, Dear Jack
A jovial, heavy-drinking traveling salesman.
Stewart Snyder
minor
Also known as Stewart, Stewart dear
Carol's college sweetheart from St. Paul.
Hugh Kennicott
minor
Also known as VI Hugh
Carol and Will's young son.
Olaf Bjornstam
minor
Also known as Bjornstam, Olaf
Miles and Bea's infant son, who dies of typhoid.
Del Snafflin
minor
Also known as Del
A young man who works at the drugstore and later becomes a soldier.
Julius Flickerbaugh
minor
Also known as Mr. Julius Flickerbaugh, the owlish Mr. Julius Flickerbaugh
A fussy, owl-like lawyer in Gopher Prairie.
Frederick Ludelmeyer
minor
Also known as Mr. Frederick F. Ludelmeyer, Mr. Ludelmeyer
The German-born owner of the town's hotel.
Reverend Zitterel
minor
Also known as the Reverend Mr. Zitterel, Mr. Zitterel
The noisy, evangelical pastor of the local church.
Mrs. Calibree
minor
Also known as Calibree
Dr. Calibree's wife, a quiet presence in the community.
Mrs. McGanum
minor
Also known as Chunky, young Mrs. McGanum
A plump, amiable young wife in the town.
Dr. McGanum
minor
Also known as young Dr. McGanum
A young doctor, rival to Kennicott.
Mrs. Westlake
minor
Also known as Ma Westlake, gentle Mrs. Dr. Westlake
The wife of old Dr. Westlake, a kindly gossip.
Dr. Westlake
minor
Also known as old Dr. Westlake, Westlake
An amiable, elderly physician nearing retirement.
Axel Egge
minor
Also known as Axel
A Swedish farmhand who works for the Dawsons.
Ole Jenson
minor
Also known as Jenson, Ole Jenson the grocer
The town's Norwegian grocer.
Mrs. Leonard Warren
minor
Also known as Mrs. Warren
A society matron in Gopher Prairie.
George Edwin Mott
minor
Also known as Professor Mott, George
The local school principal and professor.
Mrs. George Edwin Mott
minor
Also known as Mrs. Mott
The professor's wife, active in town affairs.
Adolph Morgenroth
minor
Also known as Morgenroth
A German-born tailor in town.
Nels Erdstrom
minor
Also known as Nelson, Nels
A Swedish farmhand and handyman.
Mrs. Mary Ellen Wilks
minor
Also known as Mrs. Wilks, Mary
A poor, struggling woman with many children.
Rita Simons
minor
Also known as Simons, Young Rita Simons
A pretty, flirtatious young woman in the town's social set.
Dr. Calibree
minor
Also known as Calibree
An elderly, somewhat senile doctor in town.
Chet Dashaway
minor
Also known as Chet, Chester
A young man who works at the garage.
Mrs. Chet Dashaway
minor
Also known as Mrs. Dashaway
Chet's wife, a member of the younger social set.
Mrs. Swiftwaite
minor
Also known as The little Swiftwaite, a Mrs. Swiftwaite
A small, gossipy widow in the community.
Mrs. Erdstrom
minor
Also known as Erdstrom
Nels's wife, a Swedish immigrant woman.
Mrs. B. J. Gougerling
minor
Also known as Mrs. Gougerling, B. J. Gougerling
The wife of a local businessman.
Mrs. Edgar Potbury
minor
Also known as Mrs. Potbury, this Mrs. Edgar Potbury
A society woman who hosts card parties.
Gus Dahl
minor
Also known as Dahl
A Swedish laborer in town.
Willis Woodford
minor
Also known as William, Billy, the Woodfords
A young man who works at the bank.
Jim Howland
minor
Also known as Howland, James Madison Howland
The town's grocer.
Mrs. Howland
minor
Also known as Howland, gibed Mrs. Howland
Jim Howland's wife, a sharp-tongued woman.
Mrs. Elisha Gurrey
minor
Also known as Mrs. Gurrey
A widow who runs a boarding house.
Pete Garsheim
minor
Also known as Pete
A Swedish laborer and friend of Miles Bjornstam.
Pete Rustad
minor
Also known as Pete, The surly Pete
A surly Swedish farmhand.
Mrs. Rustad
minor
Pete Rustad's wife, a Swedish immigrant.
Tina Malmquist
minor
Also known as Tina
A Swedish servant girl in town.
Oscarina
minor
A Swedish maid who works for the Kennicotts after Bea.
Mrs. Jonderquist
minor
A Swedish woman in the community.
Mrs. Flickerbaugh
minor
Julius Flickerbaugh's wife.
Marcus Westlake
minor
Also known as Mark
The son of Dr. Westlake.
Earl Haydock
minor
Also known as Earl
Harry Haydock's younger brother.
Bessie Clark
minor
Also known as Bessie
Sam Clark's daughter.
Loren Wheeler
minor
Also known as Lars
A local farmer and handyman.
Oscar Eklund
minor
Also known as Oscar
A Swedish laborer in Gopher Prairie.
Charles Holmberg
minor
Also known as young Mr. Charley Holmberg
A young man who works at the drugstore.
Halvor
minor
A Norwegian farmhand.
Mart Mahoney
minor
Also known as Martin Mahoney
An Irish laborer in town.
Father Klubok
minor
Also known as Father
The local Catholic priest.
Reverend Warren
minor
Also known as Mrs. Reverend Warren
A visiting minister who preaches in town.
Mr. Boothby
minor
A traveling salesman who visits Gopher Prairie.
Mr. Marbury
minor
Also known as Marbury
A stranger who passes through town.
Mr. Schnarken
minor
A German immigrant who runs a small shop.