Character guide

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.