Character guide

Louis Dubedat

major

Also known as Mr. Dubedat, Louis, Mr. Louis Dubedat, Dubedat, Louis Impatiently, Louis Startled, Louis Surprised, Louis Coolly, Louis Patiently, Louis Minnie, Louis Minnie Tinwell, Louis Jennifer

Louis Dubedat is the brilliant young artist at the center of the play's medical dilemma: consumptive, magnetic, and utterly without conscience about money, marriage, or truth. He borrows from every doctor he meets while insisting he has no vices, and his radiant faith in his own art is matched only by his casual dishonesty. His fate forces the physicians to ask whether saving a life and saving a soul are the same thing.

Sir Colenso Ridgeon

major

Also known as Sir Colenso, Ridgeon, Ridgeon Indeed, Ridgeon Shaking, Ridgeon Proceeding, Ridgeon Quivering, Ridgeon Thunderstruck, old Colly Ridgeon, Colly, Ridgeon Exasperated, Ridgeon No, Ridgeon Good Lord, Ridgeon Continuing, Ridgeon Furious, Ridgeon About Dubedat, Ridgeon B.B., Ridgeon Phagocytes, Ridgeon Death, Ridgeon Chut, Ridgeon Jane Marsh

Ridgeon has just been honored for a tuberculosis treatment that works, but his supply of the cure is cruelly limited, and the choice of whom to save falls to him. He is scientific, skeptical, and quietly vain, dismissing the soul as an organ he has never found in his anatomical work. When Jennifer Dubedat pleads for her husband's life, Ridgeon's judgment becomes entangled with his own feelings, making the play's central dilemma intensely personal.

Sir Patrick Cullen

major

Also known as Old Sir Patrick Cullen, old Paddy Cullen, Sir Patrick, Sir Patrick Gammon, Patrick, Paddy, Sir Patrick Grunts, Sir Patrick Tuberculosis, Sir Patrick Jane, Sir Patrick Blarney, Sir Patrick Bernard Shaw, Redpenny Old Paddy Cullen

Sir Patrick Cullen is the senior doctor in the play, a veteran of decades of practice who regards his colleagues' theories with amused contempt. He insists that only two things are ever wrong with a man: a cheque or a woman, and that until you know a man is sound on both, you know nothing about him. His dry skepticism provides the moral counterweight to Ridgeon's scientific ambition and the younger doctors' self-congratulation.

Jennifer Dubedat

major

Also known as Mrs. Dubedat, Mrs. Dubedat Doctor, Mrs. Dubedat Chosen, Mrs. Dubedat Rising, Mrs. Dubedat Embarrassed, the lawful Mrs. Dubedat, Mrs. Dubedat Sir Ralph, Mrs. Dubedat Tortured, Mrs. Dubedat Surprised, Mrs. Dubedat Heartbroken, Jennifer Unshaken, Jennifer Wounded, Jennifer, Mrs. Dudebat

Jennifer Dubedat arrives at Ridgeon's practice determined to save her dying husband, armed with his paintings and an unshakable faith in his worth. She is no naive innocent: she tells Ridgeon plainly that to him living things have no souls, and she defends the dear brutes she has loved against men who would vivisect them. Her devotion to Louis, and her grief when she learns how the doctors have judged him, gives the play its emotional center.

Cutler Walpole

supporting

Also known as Mr. Cutler Walpole, Mr. Walpole, Walpole, Cutler, Cutler Walpole, Walpole Swiftly, Walpole Sinking, Walpole Rising, Walpole Hallo, Walpole Whew, Walpole Rot, Walpole Ten, Walpole Well

Cutler Walpole is a prosperous, self-assured surgeon whose pet theory is that a nuciform sac causes most disease and should be surgically removed. He lends Dubedat twenty pounds on the strength of the artist's charming talk about dressing his wife prettily, only to discover he was not the only doctor so touched. His rivalry with Bloomfield Bonington over Jennifer's attentions, and his blunt contempt for journalists, mark him as a man of action with more confidence than reflection.

Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonington

supporting

Also known as Sir Ralph, Bloomfield Bonington, simple Ralph, B.B. B.B., B.B. Sir Ralph, B.B. Altogether, B.B. Beaming, B.B. Severely, B.B. Downstairs, B.B.

Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonington is the most charming and least competent of the doctors, a man whose eloquence and warmth win patients even as his treatments do nothing. He lends Dubedat ten pounds after the artist confides that his wife has taken a fancy to him, unaware that Walpole heard the same story. His house is full of spoiled animals and his manner full of soothing platitudes, making him a comic emblem of medical authority without substance.

Dr. Blenkinsop

supporting

Also known as Blenkinsop, Jennifer, Blenkinsop Rising, Poor Jennifer, poor Blenkinsop, Kill Jennifer, Jennifer Dr. Blenkinsop, Blenkinsop Interested

Blenkinsop belongs to the unglamorous end of medicine, the private practice he once kept and now denounces as licensed murder. His own tuberculosis makes him a rival for Ridgeon's limited cure, and his recent luck — a Medical Officer of Health post won by curing a chairman with a pound of greengages — only sharpens the absurdity of who lives and who dies. He matters because his need forces Ridgeon, and the reader, to weigh professional sentiment against cold arithmetic.

Redpenny

supporting

Also known as surname Redpenny, Emmy, Redpenny Distracted, Redpenny Emmy, Redpenny Appearing, Redpenny Old Paddy Cullen

Redpenny is the consulting-room's factotum — half laboratory assistant, half secretary — trading his labor for the informal education of proximity to a leader of the profession. His credulous, hasty friendliness and his hair still in transition from boy to doctor make him an eager witness to the egos and quarrels that pass through Ridgeon's door. He matters as the story's fresh-eyed observer, the one who still believes in the men he serves.

Emmy

supporting

Also known as Emmy Looking, Emmy Well, Emmy Coaxing, Emmy Announcing, Emmy Unmoved, Emmy Returning

Emmy knows the doctors' quarter between Cavendish Square and Marylebone Road better than any of its physicians, and she guards Ridgeon's threshold with the authority of an old family nurse. She thinks his great discoveries are fudge, dreads that a knighthood will bring a footman, and decides for herself which callers are worth admitting. She matters because her blunt, unsentimental judgments puncture the professional solemnity around her — and because she is the one who lets the play's visitors in.

Schutzmacher

minor

Also known as Mr. Schutzmacher, Dr. Schutzmacher

A German-Jewish doctor who represents the commercial side of medical practice.

Minnie Tinwell

minor

Also known as Louis Minnie, Minnie, little Minnie, The Maid, The Maid Minnie Tinwell

A young maid in the Dubedat household who is fond of Louis.

Jane Marsh

minor

Also known as Ridgeon Jane Marsh, Poor Jane, Jane

A tuberculosis patient of Ridgeon's who is cured by his treatment.

Mr. Danby

minor

A minor character mentioned in the play's social circle.

Mrs. Jack Foljambe

minor

Also known as the smart Mrs. Foljambe, Mrs. Foljambe

A fashionable society woman mentioned in the doctors' conversations.

George Boddington

minor

Also known as George Boddington of Sutton Coldfield, George

A patient mentioned in passing by the doctors.

dull Mr. Smith

minor

A minor character referenced in the play's dialogue.