# The Last Man — Character guide

> Key figures in The Last Man by Mary Shelley.

- [The Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/unknown_narrator.md): Raised as a shepherd's son and lifted into noble circles by Adrian's friendship, he moves between intimate domestic life and the great political dramas of his age. His loyalty to Raymond and Adrian pulls him toward scene
- [Lord Raymond](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/lord_raymond.md): Raymond returns from Greek victories and sudden fortune to a country that once despised him, and he means to make it bow. He is courteous, magnetic, and utterly convinced that power is the only proof of worth, a creed th
- [Perdita](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/perdita.md): Once stern and solitary in childhood, Perdita blossoms through marriage into a wife and mother of startling depth, reading Raymond's letters and sharing his inmost thoughts. When his attention wanders, her concentrated p
- [Adrian](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/adrian.md): Adrian is the friend who lifts the narrator from obscurity and the brother whose supposed madness sends Idris pleading for rescue. He meditates on how to free souls from a cruel preacher's grip, and his compassion extend
- [Idris](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/idris.md): Idris enters the novel as a vision of beauty in Perdita's alcove, then immediately reveals her steel by imploring Verney to find and restore the imprisoned Adrian. Her love for her brother and her later marriage to the n
- [Clara](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/clara.md): Clara appears first as a child holding Perdita's hand in silence, then grows into a young woman who faces a raging sea without fear, telling her father that one death will clasp them undivided. Her heart is a throne of l
- [Evadne Zaimi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/evadne_zaimi.md): Evadne Zaimi moves through the novel as a figure of wounded dignity: dark-haired, regal even in poverty, she once held Adrian's devotion and threw it away for Raymond, who did not return her love. When Raymond finds her 
- [Ryland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/ryland.md): Ryland rises from a father ruined by gambling and royal favour to become a voice of patriotic opposition, wary of Raymond's royal ambitions and Adrian's idealism alike. He is pragmatic where Raymond is dazzling, suspicio
- [Lucy Martin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/lucy_martin.md): Lucy Martin belongs to the household circle around Idris and Verney, a woman of narrow horizon but deep feeling, whose loyalty never wavers as the plague empties England. When Verney finds her alone beside her mother's c
- [Lionel Verney](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/lionel_verney.md): Lionel Verney begins as an unlettered, hot-tempered youth on the margins of society, then rises through his bond with Adrian and his marriage to Idris into the heart of England's ruling circle. He is loyal, self-doubting
- [Juliet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/juliet.md): Juliet moves through the story as one of its tenderest casualties, a girl whose affections are given wholly and whose grief, when it comes, is absolute. She is remembered as 'sweet Juliet' and 'poor Juliet' — epithets th
- [The Countess](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/the_countess.md): A mysterious and commanding noblewoman who plays a role in the social dynamics of the story.
- [Merrival](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/merrival.md): An astronomer who remains absorbed in his studies even as the world collapses around him.
- [Alfred](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/alfred.md): A young man who becomes a close companion to the narrator during the plague years.
- [Evelyn](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_last_man_se/characters/evelyn.md): A small child who is cared for by the group during the epidemic.

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