Character guide

Mr. Polly

major

Also known as Polly, Mamie, Alfred Polly, Alfred

Mr. Polly drifts into the drapery trade, into marriage, and into a failing shop in Fishbourne, none of it chosen so much as allowed to happen. His real life runs underneath: a hunger for beauty, adventure, and meaning that no counter or ledger can satisfy, and a gift for odd, half-invented words that no one around him appreciates. His discontent is the engine of the book, and his struggle to escape the greyness he calls his own is what carries the story forward.

Miriam

major

Also known as cousin Miriam, Cousin Miriam, Miriam Polly

Miriam enters Mr. Polly's life as one of the cheerful Larkins cousins and settles into it as a wife who manages the shop, the kitchen, and the household accounts without ever quite seeing the man beside her. She is not cruel, only entirely without imagination about him, and the marriage becomes a long, low quarrel of mismatched appetites. Her cooking and her economies are the daily texture of Mr. Polly's unhappiness, and the reader feels the trap closing with every meal.

Uncle Jim

supporting

Also known as Jim

Uncle Jim is the shadow that falls across the Potwell Inn, a nephew and a menace whose reputation for scooting strangers precedes him. He is not handsome, not kind, and not above teaching a nine-year-old to swear and spit, which is exactly what makes him so quietly dreadful. His looming return gives the inn its atmosphere of dread and gives Mr. Polly something genuinely frightening to measure himself against.

Parsons

supporting

Also known as old Parsons, the gallant Parsons, the enthusiastic Parsons

Parsons is Mr. Polly's fellow apprentice in the drapery shop, a bellowing, enthusiastic young man who knows Milton and Shakespeare by heart and reads aloud whether anyone wants him to or not. Through him Mr. Polly gets his first taste of Verona and of a life larger than the counter, and the friendship of the Three Ps is one of the few warm things in his youth. Parsons matters because he shows what Mr. Polly might have been with a little more encouragement and a little less circumstance.

Johnson

supporting

Also known as Mrs. Johnson, Mr. Johnson

Mr. Johnson is the kind of neighbor who walks slowly down the garden path explaining the management of peas, wrinkles neatly applied and difficulties wisely overcome. He is decent, unremarkable, and entirely at home in the small world Mr. Polly cannot settle into, which is precisely what makes him useful to the story. His patient gardening talk is the ordinary life Mr. Polly is failing to live, set beside him in the same narrow strip of garden.

Mr. Voules

supporting

Also known as a Mr. Voules, Presently Mr. Voules

Mr. Voules belongs to the wider Larkins connection, the sort of relative who turns up, holds forth, and makes himself comfortable in someone else's house. He is not a villain, only one more voice in the chorus of people who know how Mr. Polly ought to live. His presence thickens the atmosphere of small social obligations and petty intrusions that the novel treats as the real weight on its hero's life.

Mrs. Larkins

supporting

Also known as Larkins, the Larkins, Aunt Larkins

Mrs. Larkins presides over the Larkins household with a mix of shrewdness and slapdash hospitality, sizing up Mr. Polly's matrimonial prospects while forgetting the butter. She boasts of having kept Larkins hesitating two years before marrying, a cautionary tale she aims squarely at her daughters' beaux. Her enigmatical grimace when she catches Mr. Polly's hand brush Miriam's signals a watchful, worldly tolerance that shapes the courtship's uneasy temperature.

Uncle Pentstemon

minor

Mr. Polly's eccentric uncle who leaves him a small inheritance.

Mr. Rusper

minor

Also known as Rusper, the unfortunate Mr. Rusper

A rival shopkeeper in Fishbourne.

Annie

minor

Also known as Miss Annie, cousin Annie, Cousin Annie

Miriam's sister, who marries Mr. Voules.

Wintershed

minor

Also known as Mr. Wintershed

A fellow apprentice at Mr. Polly's first job.

Rumbold

minor

Also known as Mr. Rumbold, Old Rumbold, old Rumbold

A draper and Mr. Polly's early employer.

Platt

minor

Also known as II Platt

A fellow apprentice at Rumbold's.

The Young Lady

minor

A romantic interest of Mr. Polly's youth.

Mr. Garvace

minor

Also known as Garvace

Mr. Polly's employer at the drapery shop.

Morrison

minor

Also known as old Morrison

A colleague of Mr. Polly at Garvace's.

Elfrid

minor

Also known as cousin Elfrid

Miriam's brother, a lazy and pretentious young man.

Hinks

minor

Also known as V Hinks, Mr. Hinks

A friend of Parsons involved in a bicycle accident.

Mrs. Polly

minor

Also known as the unveracious Polly, Minnie

Mr. Polly's mother, a minor figure in his past.

Boomer

minor

Also known as Mr. Boomer

A customer at the Potwell Inn.

Christabel

minor

A young woman Mr. Polly meets during his travels.

Gambell

minor

Also known as Mr. Gambell

A customer at the Potwell Inn.

Little Clamp

minor

Also known as Mr. Clamp

A small boy who torments Mr. Polly.

Mrs. Rusper

minor

Also known as Rusper

Mr. Rusper's wife.

Warspite

minor

Also known as Mr. Warspite

A customer at the Potwell Inn.

Mansfield

minor

Also known as Mr. Mansfield

A customer at the Potwell Inn.

Sterne

minor

A fellow apprentice and friend of Mr. Polly.

Carter

minor

A fellow employee at Garvace's.

Mrs. Punt

minor

A customer at Mr. Polly's shop.

Blake

minor

Also known as Mr. Blake

A fellow traveler Mr. Polly encounters.

Alf

minor

A boy who works for Mr. Polly.

Mantell

minor

Also known as Messrs. Mantell

A firm of solicitors.

Podger

minor

Also known as Mr. Podger, Presently Mr. Podger

A customer at the Potwell Inn.

Lizzie

minor

Also known as Betsy, the helpful Betsy

A servant at the Potwell Inn.

Mrs. Voules

minor

Also known as the entirely impassive Mrs. Voules

Mr. Voules' wife.

Harold

minor

Also known as Harold Johnsonese

A young man who visits the Polly household.

Tashingford

minor

Also known as Mr. Tashingford

A customer at the Potwell Inn.

Master Punt

minor

Mrs. Punt's son.

Bessie

minor

A servant girl at the Potwell Inn.

Willy

minor

Also known as Willie

A young boy in the neighborhood.

Chuffles

minor

Also known as Mr. Chuffles

A customer at the Potwell Inn.

Aunt Flo

minor

Also known as Good old Aunty Flo

Mr. Polly's aunt.

Rosie

minor

A young woman Mr. Polly briefly meets.

Rymer

minor

Also known as Mr. Rymer

A customer at the Potwell Inn.

Mildred

minor

Also known as Aunt Mildred

Mr. Polly's aunt.

Martha Larkins

minor

Also known as Martha

A relative of the Larkins family.

Uncle Voules

minor

Mr. Voules' brother.

Old Tommy

minor

Also known as Tom Cringle

A local character mentioned in passing.

Tonks

minor

A customer at the Potwell Inn.

Bolls

minor

A customer at the Potwell Inn.