# Miss Wodehouse — The Rector and The Doctor’s Family character guide

> Miss Wodehouse in The Rector and The Doctor’s Family by Margaret Oliphant.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Miss Wodehouse, good Miss Wodehouse

**First appearance:** 0000-the-rector

## Snapshot

A gentle, unready spinster of Carlingford whose lifelong habit of loving without interfering leaves her helpless before real need.

## Who they are

Miss Wodehouse has drifted through a soft life in Grange Lane, content to love her sister Lucy and never take a decided part in anything, so that when action is required she is inexpert and deeply embarrassed. Nettie's strange, hard case oppresses her mind precisely because it is so unlike anything she could have conceived, and her faltering talk of professional men and marriage betrays how little she understands the world's rougher currents. She embodies the comfortable, well-meaning Carlingford society against which Nettie's fierce practicality and the Rector's scruples are measured.

## In the story

### [The Rector](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/chapters/the-rector)

A kind parishioner who interacts with the rector and shows concern for his well-being.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/chapters/i)

The elder, calm, and non-polemical sister who knits under the May-tree and makes a startling suggestion about the Rector marrying Lucy.

### [Chapter II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/chapters/ii)

The elder Miss Wodehouse; described as deprecating and gentle; Mrs. Proctor suggests she would make a suitable wife for the Rector.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/chapters/iii)

Comforts the Rector after his failure, shares her own regrets about Lucy's mother.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/chapters/iv)

Miss Wodehouse is referenced as having visited Mrs. Proctor and discussed the late rector and Lucy's differences, but she is absent when the Rector calls.

### [Chapter V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/chapters/v)

Gently challenges Nettie's situation but is unable to offer a practical alternative, reflecting on her own passive life.

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/chapters/vi)

Miss Wodehouse visits Nettie often, with a yearning admiration for a creature so unlike herself. She has ceased to expostulate or wonder at the arrangement.

### [XIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/chapters/xiv)

Gentle adviser who suggests Nettie make an arrangement to marry, but is firmly rebuffed.

### [XVIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/chapters/xviii)

Reflects on the wedding and visits the doctor's house to see the new home.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters/miss_wodehouse
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rector_and_the_doctor_s_family_se/characters