# The Moon and Sixpence — Character guide

> Key figures in The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham.

- [Charles Strickland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/charles_strickland.md): 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 
- [The Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/narrator.md): 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 ow
- [Mrs. Strickland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/mrs_strickland.md): 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 mana
- [Dirk Stroeve](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/dirk_stroeve.md): 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 fir
- [Blanche Stroeve](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/blanche_stroeve.md): 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 c
- [Ata](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/ata.md): 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 nothi
- [Dr. Coutras](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/dr_coutras.md): 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 — St
- [Captain Nichols](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/captain_nichols.md): A disreputable sea captain who accompanies Strickland to Tahiti.
- [Tiaré Johnson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/tiare_johnson.md): The half-Tahitian owner of a hotel in Papeete who helps Strickland.
- [Miss Waterford](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/miss_waterford.md): A gossipy novelist who introduces the narrator to Strickland's circle.
- [Colonel MacAndrew](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/colonel_macandrew.md): Mrs. Strickland's brother, a retired military man who confronts Strickland.
- [Mrs. MacAndrew](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/mrs_macandrew.md): Colonel MacAndrew's wife, who accompanies him to Paris.
- [Captain Brunot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/captain_brunot.md): A French planter in Tahiti who tells the narrator about Strickland.
- [Tough Bill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/tough_bill.md): A rough sailor who befriends Strickland during his voyage to Tahiti.
- [Abraham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/abraham.md): A brilliant medical student who abandons his career for a simple life.
- [Amy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/amy.md): A friend of Mrs. Strickland who helps her after Strickland leaves.
- [Rev. Robert Strickland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/rev_robert_strickland.md): Charles Strickland's son, who becomes a clergyman.
- [Mr. Van Busche Taylor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/mr_van_busche_taylor.md): An American art collector who researches Strickland's life.
- [Captain Johnson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_moon_and_sixpence_se/characters/captain_johnson.md): A sea captain who transports Strickland to Tahiti.

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