Character guide

Napoleon

major

Also known as Napoleon, the Bourbons Napoleon, Bonaparte

Le Bon returns to Napoleon as the supreme technician of prestige, the man who understood that crowds are led through their imagination and not their reason. He became a god to his followers for fifteen years, sending men to their deaths with the ease of a divinity, and even confessed that he won Egypt by becoming a Mussulman and the Vendée by becoming a Catholic. His example anchors the book's central claim that great leaders govern by striking the collective imagination.

The Speaker

major

Also known as the speaker

This is the treatise's guiding intelligence, a nineteenth-century observer who distinguishes the everyday crowd from the psychological crowd formed when individual personalities dissolve into one collective mind. He argues that a nation can become a crowd without assembling, and half a dozen men can constitute one, unsettling any easy faith in the rational individual. His voice carries the book's early arc, teaching the reader to see suggestion, contagion, and unconscious drives beneath public life.

Unknown Narrator

major

Also known as Unknown

Speaking as "I," this narrator frames the inquiry as a deliberate psychological study, warning that only in novels do people keep an unvarying character. He moves between examples — the French Convention, a theatre audience, a nation seized by a great event — to show how environment and emotion transform ordinary citizens into crowd members. His measured, almost clinical curiosity sets the tone for the book's opening investigation into mental unity.

Augereau

supporting

Augereau belongs to Le Bon's gallery of figures whose characters shift with circumstance, evidence that even the fiercest revolutionaries resume quiet, law-abiding lives once the storm passes. He stands beside the notaries and magistrates of the Convention who became Napoleon's most obedient instruments, illustrating the book's claim that environment, not fixed nature, creates apparent uniformity of character. His brief appearance supports the argument that crowds unlock latent selves no one would predict in isolation.

Taine

supporting

Also known as M. Taine

Taine appears as an intellectual touchstone, cited and occasionally disputed as Le Bon stakes out his own account of collective behavior. His presence signals that this is a book in conversation with nineteenth-century historiography, borrowing its prestige while insisting that crowds obey laws of their own. For the reader, he marks the moment the treatise shifts from anecdote to argument, grounding its claims in the scholarship of the day.

Robespierre

supporting

Robespierre and the Jacobins of the Reign of Terror are held up as proof that political conviction and religious faith share the same fierce, intolerant root. Le Bon argues that the Terror's cruelty sprang from the same source as the Inquisition's, and that crowds will worship a hero as a veritable god, whether the idol is Napoleon or an abstract creed. His example drives home the book's unsettling thesis that fanaticism is not a relic of the past but a permanent feature of collective belief.

Ferdinand de Lesseps

supporting

Also known as de Lesseps

In Le Bon's gallery of crowd leaders, de Lesseps stands as the type whose renown alone once commanded obedience, proof that prestige can substitute for argument. Le Bon notes that such leaders often seek only personal interest, flattering base instincts, and that their influence, however great, is always ephemeral. His rise and fall dramatize the book's central claim that a crowd's devotion is a force no individual can manufacture or keep.

Crowds

major

Also known as Crowds, Crowds Crowds, Crowds

Le Bon's true protagonist is the organised crowd: any gathering, or even a whole nation, in which conscious personality vanishes and sentiments turn in one direction. It is easily heroic and easily criminal, intolerant yet servile before strong authority, and it lowers the intelligence of each member while amplifying his feeling. Understanding this strange composite creature is the key to everything the book argues about politics, religion, and history.

The Hero

supporting

Also known as the hero

Le Bon's hero is less a person than a projection — the amplified image a crowd insists on, whether in a play or a revolution. Because crowds feel only in extremes, they exact from their heroes a morality and daring no ordinary man could sustain, and they abandon anyone who falls short of the myth. This demand explains why crowd leadership is so theatrical, so fragile, and so easily transferred to the next dazzling figure.

Barras

minor

French revolutionary politician mentioned in context of crowd dynamics.

Mr. Davey

minor

A specific individual cited in an example of crowd suggestibility.

Caesar

minor

Roman leader used as a historical example of prestige and crowd control.

Maret

minor

French statesman and diplomat referenced in discussions of leadership.

M. Lachaud

minor

Also known as Lachaud

Lawyer cited as an example of oratorical influence on juries.

Muhammad

minor

Prophet used as an example of religious prestige swaying crowds.

M. C⸺

minor

Anonymous figure used in a hypothetical example of crowd behavior.

Buddha

minor

Religious founder cited to illustrate the power of belief over crowds.

Herbert Spencer

minor

Philosopher whose views on society and education are critiqued.

Davoust

minor

Napoleonic marshal mentioned in context of military leadership.

Ghengis Khan

minor

Also known as Ghengis Khan and Tamerlane, Tamerlane

Conqueror used as an example of destructive crowd-led power.

Alexander

minor

Ancient leader cited to illustrate the role of prestige in leadership.

Saint Bartholomew

minor

Also known as Saint Just

Historical figure referenced in discussions of religious crowd violence.

M. Jules Simon

minor

French politician mentioned in analysis of parliamentary crowds.

Felix Pyat

minor

Revolutionary writer cited as an example of crowd-influenced rhetoric.

Beugnot

minor

Also known as Whereupon Beugnot

French administrator used in an anecdote about crowd behavior.

Voltaire

minor

Philosopher cited as an example of intellectual influence on crowds.

St. George

minor

Saint mentioned in context of religious crowd psychology.

Julian Felix

minor

Historical figure used in an example of crowd suggestibility.

Filibert Chavandret

minor

Also known as Chavandret

Individual cited in a case study of crowd credulity.

Fustel de Coulanges

minor

Historian cited for his views on the role of tradition in crowds.

Jesus

minor

Religious figure cited to illustrate the power of faith over crowds.

Tiberius

minor

Roman emperor used as an example of despotic crowd manipulation.

M. Berard des Glajeux

minor

Also known as M. des Glajeux

French official cited in a case study of crowd psychology.

Victor Hugo

minor

Writer referenced in discussions of the imagination of crowds.

M. Paul Bourget

minor

Novelist and critic referenced in discussions of social psychology.

Antony

minor

Roman politician referenced in discussions of crowd oratory.

M. Adolphe Guillot

minor

French magistrate mentioned in analysis of criminal crowds.

Comrade X

minor

Also known as X, Comrade X

Anonymous figure used in a hypothetical example of crowd behavior.

Edgar Quinet

minor

Historian and politician cited in analysis of crowd beliefs.

M. D’Harcourt

minor

Diplomat mentioned in an example of crowd prestige.