The Moon and Sixpence · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
Charles Strickland
major
Also known as Strickland, Charlie, dear Charlie, Neither Strickland
Strickland passes through respectable middle-class life like a man wearing someone else's coat, until one autumn he simply leaves it behind and turns up in Paris, shabby and unrepentant. He is indifferent to comfort, to hunger, to other people's suffering, and to his own paintings once they are finished; what drives him is a possession he can barely articulate and does not try to justify. His refusal to be explained is exactly what makes him magnetic, and the narrator's long attempt to fill in the gaps of his character becomes the engine of the whole book.
The Narrator
major
Also known as Unknown, myself, I
He begins as a minor literary figure invited to Mrs. Strickland's teas, useful for his connections and harmless at her table, and ends up the only person stubborn enough to keep asking questions about her husband. His own mildness — the ordinary ambitions, the social ease, the slight itch for a wilder course — makes him the perfect foil for Strickland's ruthlessness, and his confessed uncertainty about what he is seeing gives the book its unsettling honesty. He matters because the story exists only through his partial, haunted reconstruction.
Mrs. Strickland
supporting
Also known as Strickland, Mrs. Strickland
She presides over a pleasant middle-class household, collects minor literary lions, and believes firmly that decent women live on other people's money. When Strickland leaves, her first instinct is not grief but the management of scandal — she will take him back, she says, if he comes to his senses, and she will not hear of divorce. Her serene revision of her own history, and her children's easy piety about a father they never really knew, quietly indict the very society Strickland fled.
Dirk Stroeve
supporting
Also known as Stroeve, Dirk, Madame Dirk Stroeve, poor Dirk, Madame
Stroeve is the butt of every studio joke in Montmartre, a man who lends money to the friends who mock him and weeps over stories he knows are invented. Yet his judgment of painting is almost infallible, and he is the first person to insist that Strickland is a great artist when everyone else sees only a brute. His devotion to a man who despises him, and his helpless love for a wife who does not love him back, turn his kindness into the instrument of his own ruin.
Blanche Stroeve
supporting
Also known as Blanche Stroeve, Stroeve, Blanche
She keeps Dirk's studio, sews by the stove, and offers the narrator nothing but a guarded civility that he cannot read. When Strickland enters their household, first as a patient and then as something else, she makes a choice that astonishes everyone who thought they knew her, and her self-command becomes more frightening than any outburst. Her silence and her final refusal to be rescued are what make her, in the narrator's reluctant admission, a tragedy rather than a scandal.
Ata
supporting
Also known as Ata
Ata comes to Strickland in the islands the way the islands themselves do — without argument, without expectation, offering a hut, a garden, and a child. She asks nothing of him that he cannot give, and he gives her nothing but his presence, which is apparently enough. Her fidelity, and the terrible promise she keeps when he is dying, place her at the moral center of the book's final movement, where Strickland's contempt for the world meets a love that does not need to be returned.
Dr. Coutras
supporting
Also known as Dr. Coutras, Presently Dr. Coutras, LV Mr. Coutras
Dr. Coutras moves through Papeete with a resonant voice, a shrewd eye, and a taste for local gossip about copra and vanilla. When a weeping girl brings him a crumpled hundred-franc note for the Red One, he hesitates — Strickland is to him an idle scoundrel living with a native woman — yet duty and curiosity drag him up the valley. His vivid, theatrical account of what he finds there becomes the narrator's chief window onto Strickland's last days.
Captain Nichols
minor
Also known as Captain Nichols, Nichols
A disreputable sea captain who accompanies Strickland to Tahiti.
Tiaré Johnson
minor
Also known as LI Tiaré, Tiaré, Tiaré Johnson
The half-Tahitian owner of a hotel in Papeete who helps Strickland.
Miss Waterford
minor
Also known as Miss Waterford, Rose Waterford
A gossipy novelist who introduces the narrator to Strickland's circle.
Colonel MacAndrew
minor
Also known as Colonel MacAndrew, the Colonel
Mrs. Strickland's brother, a retired military man who confronts Strickland.
Mrs. MacAndrew
minor
Also known as Mrs. MacAndrew
Colonel MacAndrew's wife, who accompanies him to Paris.
Captain Brunot
minor
Also known as Captain Brunot, Rene Brunot, Brunot, Rene, Capitaine Brunot
A French planter in Tahiti who tells the narrator about Strickland.
Tough Bill
minor
Also known as Tough Bill
A rough sailor who befriends Strickland during his voyage to Tahiti.
Abraham
minor
Also known as Abraham
A brilliant medical student who abandons his career for a simple life.
Amy
minor
Also known as Amy, Poor Amy
A friend of Mrs. Strickland who helps her after Strickland leaves.
Rev. Robert Strickland
minor
Also known as the Rev. Robert Strickland, Robert, Robert Strickland
Charles Strickland's son, who becomes a clergyman.
Mr. Van Busche Taylor
minor
Also known as Mr. Van Busche Taylor
An American art collector who researches Strickland's life.
Captain Johnson
minor
Also known as Captain Johnson
A sea captain who transports Strickland to Tahiti.
Alec Carmichael
minor
Also known as Alec Carmichael
A successful painter who contrasts with Strickland's obscurity.
Fred
minor
Also known as Fred
A friend of the Strickland family who assists Mrs. Strickland.
George Rainey
minor
Also known as George Rainey
A doctor who treats Blanche Stroeve after her suicide attempt.
Mrs. Nichols
minor
Also known as Mrs. Nichols, Sometimes Mrs. Nichols
Captain Nichols's long-suffering wife.
Madame Coutras
minor
Also known as Madame Coutras, Madame
Dr. Coutras's wife, who assists in Strickland's final days.
Mrs. Ronaldson
minor
Also known as Mrs. Ronaldson
A neighbor of the Stroeves in Paris who gossips about Blanche.
Mrs. Johnson
minor
Also known as Mrs. Johnson
A hotel keeper in Tahiti who knows Strickland.
