# Julius Mackenzie — Short Fiction character guide

> Julius Mackenzie in Short Fiction by Anthony Trollope.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Julius Mackenzie, Mr. Mackenzie, Mackenzie, poor Mackenzie

**First appearance:** 0018-the-widow-s-mite

## Snapshot

An educated, debt-ridden writer who appeals to a stranger for help, Julius Mackenzie struggles to support his family while a terrible skeleton rattles in the cupboard.

## Who they are

Mackenzie writes to a man he has never met, confessing his impecuniosity, his infidel opinions, and his association with the Spotted Dog in Liquorpond Street, yet his letter carries such keen intelligence that his correspondent cannot dismiss it. With the help of a generous doctor, he secures scholarly work at the British Museum and begins to prosper—but his wife, who has been behaving worse than ever, keeps appearing at the Spotted Dog demanding money, and the hostess Mrs. Grimes fears the arrangement will collapse. Mackenzie's struggle between intellectual ambition and domestic chaos makes him one of Trollope's most painfully sympathetic portraits of a man undone by circumstance.

## In the story

### [Part I: The Attempt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_4_se/chapters/part-i-the-attempt)

A distressed scholar with a wife and four children, seeking literary work; described as a drunken blackguard by the editor, but the narrator attempts to befriend him.

### [Part II: The Result](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_4_se/chapters/part-ii-the-result)

Found in a drunken stupor at home; later commits suicide by hanging; a once-brilliant scholar ruined by drink.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_4_se/characters/julius_mackenzie
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- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_4_se/characters