# The Apple Cart — Character guide

> Key figures in The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw.

- [King Magnus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_apple_cart_se/characters/king_magnus.md): Magnus is the constitutional king whose real power is persuasion, and he treats his ministers like promising amateurs he has personally trained. He stages his Cabinet reception on the terrace, reasoning that open air and
- [Mr. Bill Boanerges](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_apple_cart_se/characters/mr_bill_boanerges.md): Boanerges arrives in the Cabinet as the tribune of the workers, all volume and grievance, convinced that a man who can hold a crowd can hold a government. Magnus has not tamed him, only taught him to spend his strength i
- [Mr. Joseph Proteus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_apple_cart_se/characters/mr_joseph_proteus.md): Proteus runs the government and intends to run it without royal interference, which makes him Magnus's most patient and dangerous adversary. Where Boanerges shouts, Proteus calculates, converting every clash into a proce
- [Orinthia](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_apple_cart_se/characters/orinthia.md): Orinthia is the king's brilliant, theatrical companion, cheered in the streets and utterly convinced of her own royalty. She presses Magnus to face his destiny and hers, dismissing Queen Jemima with a shrug that is half 
- [Queen Elizabeth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_apple_cart_se/characters/queen_elizabeth.md): Jemima sits apart from Magnus on the terrace, knitting while he reads the evening paper, and she is the one who notices when ceremony is being skipped. She bristles at the American ambassador demanding an immediate audie
- [Amanda](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_apple_cart_se/characters/amanda.md): Amanda moves through the play's private and political circles with an eye for weakness and a taste for mischief, alternately sympathetic to Lizzie and scheming on her own account. She is the kind of woman who says the th
- [Sempronius Pamphilius](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_apple_cart_se/characters/sempronius_pamphilius.md): Sempronius sits at one of two facing desks in the palace office, slitting the King's mail while Pamphilius reads the papers across from him. His father manufactured coronations and Lord Mayors' Shows yet believed in them
- [Crassus Balbus Pliny](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_apple_cart_se/characters/crassus_balbus_pliny.md): Crassus, Balbus, and Pliny surface as allegorical commentators whose Latin tags and rhetorical habits shadow the modern political squabbles of the palace office. Their function is to measure the present against the antiq
- [Nicobar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_apple_cart_se/characters/nicobar.md): A cabinet minister who participates in the political debates and power struggles.
- [Alice](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_apple_cart_se/characters/alice.md): A servant or attendant in the royal household, appearing in brief scenes.
- [Jemima](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_apple_cart_se/characters/jemima.md): A maid or household worker with a few lines in the play.
- [Sir Christopher Wren](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_apple_cart_se/characters/sir_christopher_wren.md): The famous architect, mentioned in a historical allusion.
- [Lysistrata](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_apple_cart_se/characters/lysistrata.md): A classical figure referenced as an allegorical symbol of female power.

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