# Ford — Short Fiction character guide

> Ford in Short Fiction by E. M. Forster.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Ford, Oh Ford

**First appearance:** 0036-coordination

## Snapshot

A young man of small means and sharp opinions whose career hangs precariously on the favour of a wealthy employer he has privately mocked.

## Who they are

Ford is a young man of practically no money of his own, dependent on Mr. Worters for his career, and given to recording his irreverent observations in a notebook he labels practically private. When the label comes unstuck and Worters reads what Ford has written, the young man faces a choice between complete apology and departure. His pride, his poverty, and his secret contempt for his benefactor form the central tension of his arc, and his fate is bound up with the household at Other Kingdom.

## In the story

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se/chapters/i)

Mr. Worters' ward, cynical and imaginative, keeps a notebook and dreams of a tangible other earth.

### [Chapter II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se/chapters/ii)

A young man, strong despite being a bookworm, who stands at attention during the picnic and is playfully teased by his guardian and Miss Beaumont.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se/chapters/iii)

Refuses to apologize to Mr. Worters after his notebook is read; reveals his poems are about Miss Beaumont; is ordered to leave.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se/chapters/iv)

Found reading Sophocles; cryptically confirms Miss Beaumont's absolute escape.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se/characters/ford
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_13_se/characters