# The Financier — Character guide

> Key figures in The Financier by Theodore Dreiser.

- [Frank Algernon Cowperwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/frank_cowperwood.md): Frank Cowperwood learns finance at his father's bank the way other boys learn scripture, and by his early twenties he is clearing six thousand a year in note brokerage while quietly buying into every new streetcar franch
- [Aileen Butler](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/aileen_butler.md): Aileen is the beautiful, dashing daughter of a political boss, raised Catholic and accustomed to being adored, and she falls for Cowperwood with a fervor that matches his own. To him she is not merely a mistress but a li
- [George W. Stener](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/george_stener.md): Stener is a real-estate and insurance man of no particular gifts who is elevated to city treasurer because he is faithful, useful for drumming up votes, and utterly without ambition of his own. He is not a bad fellow; he
- [Edward Malia Butler](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/edward_butler.md): Butler is one of the three men who jointly run the city's politics, a hard, grim, experienced operator whose word shapes who gets elected and who gets franchises. His tenderness for Aileen, his first baby girl, is the on
- [Henry Worthington Cowperwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/henry_cowperwood.md): Henry Cowperwood is a trustworthy, sound-organization man, known to the Drexels and the Bank of the United States as a most reliable individual, and he rises steadily without ever being called brilliant. He is pleased by
- [Mrs. Henry W. Cowperwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/mrs_cowperwood_senior.md): Frank's mother, a quiet and supportive presence in the family.
- [Lillian Cowperwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/lillian_cowperwood.md): Lillian enters the novel as the young woman Frank courts and marries, a wife whose world is domestic and whose husband opens a new and terrifying vista of what life can be. She is not without feeling or dignity, but she 
- [Mrs. Frank Cowperwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/mrs_frank_cowperwood.md): She is the proud, passionate daughter of a powerful contractor who risks her social standing for a man her father helped destroy. Her marriage to Frank is both a defiant victory and a slow reckoning with the price of lov
- [Harper Steger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/harper_steger.md): Steger moves through Philadelphia's courtrooms and private offices with perfect manners and no illusions, drawn to Cowperwood as the most fascinating client he has ever served. He is subtle, indifferently cruel, and moti
- [Judge Wilbur Payderson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/judge_payderson.md): Presiding judge at Cowperwood's trial.
- [Walter Bonhag](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/walter_bonhag.md): A prison guard who becomes an antagonist to Cowperwood.
- [Mrs. Butler](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/mrs_butler.md): Edward Butler's wife and Aileen's mother.
- [Norah](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/norah.md): A young woman who becomes Cowperwood's mistress in Chicago.
- [Henry A. Mollenhauer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/henry_mollenhauer.md): Mollenhauer is the kind of power broker who treats city government as a private treasury and every crisis as a chance to consolidate control. When Stener comes to him panicked over half a million in missing funds, Mollen
- [Mark Simpson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/mark_simpson.md): A corrupt state senator allied with Cowperwood's enemies.
- [Albert Stires](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/albert_stires.md): Cowperwood's loyal clerk and later business associate.
- [Callum Butler](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/callum_butler.md): One of Edward Butler's sons.
- [Mamie Calligan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/mamie_calligan.md): A servant in the Cowperwood household.
- [Warden Michael Desmas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/warden_desmas.md): Warden of the prison where Cowperwood is incarcerated.
- [Uncle Seneca](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/uncle_seneca.md): Frank's uncle, a wealthy and domineering relative.
- [Edward Strobik](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/edward_strobik.md): A corrupt city councilman.
- [Mr. Semple](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/mr_semple.md): Lillian Cowperwood's brother-in-law.
- [Henry Waterman Sr.](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/henry_waterman_sr.md): A wealthy businessman and associate of Cowperwood.
- [Frank Cowperwood Jr.](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/frank_jr.md): Cowperwood's young son.
- [Mr. Chapin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/mr_chapin.md): A minor business figure in Philadelphia.
- [Walter Leigh](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/walter_leigh.md): A young man who socializes with Cowperwood.
- [Stephen Wingate](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/stephen_wingate.md): A business associate of Cowperwood.
- [Sheriff Jaspers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/sheriff_jaspers.md): The sheriff involved in Cowperwood's arrest.
- [Arthur Rivers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/arthur_rivers.md): A minor character in the legal world.
- [W. C. Davison](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/president_davison.md): President of a bank Cowperwood deals with.
- [Edward Tighe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/tighe.md): A minor business figure.
- [Joseph Cowperwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/joseph_cowperwood.md): Frank's younger brother.
- [Terrence Relihan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/terrence_relihan.md): A minor character in the prison setting.
- [George Waterman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/george_waterman.md): A minor business associate.
- [Father David](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/father_david.md): A priest who appears briefly.
- [Dennis Shannon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/dennis_shannon.md): A minor political figure.
- [Marjorie Stafford](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/marjorie_stafford.md): A young woman who socializes with Cowperwood.
- [Father Michel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_financier_se/characters/father_michel.md): A priest who appears briefly.

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