Character guide

Eustacia Vye

major

Also known as Miss Eustacia, Miss Vye, Eustacia Yeobright, Eustacia Clementine, Queen of Night

A queen without a realm, she burns against Egdon's grey monotony, craving love fierce enough to drown her loneliness or carry her anywhere but here.

Clym Yeobright

major

Also known as Clym, Mr. Clym, Master Clym, Young Clym Yeobright, Cousin Clym

The native who came home from Paris with a conscience, trading diamonds for heath-furze and a schoolmaster's dream he may not survive.

Thomasin Yeobright

major

Also known as Thomasin, neighbour Yeobright, young Yeobright, Mrs. Thomasin, Tamsin, Tamsie

Gentle, patient, and quietly stubborn, she waits through scandal and desertion for a marriage that everyone but her has already written off.

Damon Wildeve

major

Also known as Wildeve, Mr. Wildeve, the Pedestrian Wildeve, Damon

An engineer who never engineered much, he keeps an inn, a wife in waiting, and a flame on the heath he cannot stop feeding.

Mrs. Yeobright

major

Also known as Mrs. Yeobright of Blooms-End, Yeobright, Mis'ess Yeobright

A mother whose pride is her religion, she would rather lose her son than see him wed the woman she believes beneath him.

Diggory Venn

supporting

Also known as Diggory, Venn, Mr. Venn, Dear Diggory Venn

Red from head to heel with dye, he drifts the heath in secret, watching over another man's betrothed with a devotion she never guesses.

Christian Cantle

supporting

Also known as Christian, Ultimately Christian

Christian Cantle moves through Egdon as a reluctant errand-runner, his superstitious dread of night and strange men making even simple tasks an ordeal. When Clym presses him about his mother's last walk across the heath, Christian's halting, dream-haunted testimony becomes a crucial thread in Clym's search for the truth. His fearfulness and honesty make him both comic and quietly pivotal in the unraveling of the Yeobright tragedy.

Timothy Fairway

supporting

Also known as Timothy, neighbour Fairway, Fairway, Master Fairway, Mr. Fairway

Timothy Fairway presides over Egdon's communal life—bonfires, weddings, and the rough music that greets the newly married Wildeves at the Quiet Woman. Blunt and worldly, he teases Grandfer Cantle and trades news with a farmer's practicality, yet his voice carries the heath's collective judgment. He matters because the heathfolk's opinions, voiced through him, shadow every choice the main figures make.

Grandfer Cantle

supporting

Also known as Grandfer, the Grandfer

Grandfer Cantle is the heath's self-appointed master of ceremonies, first into every spree and loudest in every chorus, though his wheezy piping betrays the years he denies. He trades barbs with Fairway and frets over the newly married Wildeves, his vanity and good humor making him a fixture of Egdon's social fabric. His gossip about Clym's return and the wedding sets the communal tone that surrounds the novel's central households.

Susan Nunsuch

supporting

Also known as Susan, Susy, Sue

Susan Nunsuch nurses a fierce, superstitious hatred of Eustacia, blaming her for the sickness of her children and the misfortunes of her household. Her attack in church—drawing blood to break the supposed spell—turns private grievance into public scandal and marks Eustacia as an outsider among the heathfolk. Susan embodies the old fears and folk beliefs that press against Eustacia throughout the novel.

Charley

supporting

Charley serves Eustacia as a kind of devoted shadow, his adoration so pure it barely dares to look at her. When he finds her collapsed and soaked on the heath, he carries her inside, lights her fires, and kneels to hold her tea—tenderness that reveals how far her pride has fallen. His worship measures the distance between the romantic figure Eustacia imagines herself to be and the vulnerable woman she has become.

Sam

minor

Also known as Samuel

A local heath-worker and friend of the Cantles and Fairways.

Humphrey

minor

Also known as Humph

A heath-dweller who participates in local events and gossip.

Olly Dowden

minor

Also known as Olly, old Olly Dowden, Dowden

An elderly woman who joins the heath community's gatherings.

Captain Vye

minor

Also known as Cap'n Vye

Eustacia's grandfather and guardian, a retired naval officer.

Johnny Nunsuch

minor

Also known as Johnny, Jack

Susan Nunsuch's young son who often runs errands across the heath.

Mr. Yeobright (deceased)

minor

Also known as the deceased Mr. Yeobright, Poor Mr. Yeobright, Master Yeobright

Clym and Thomasin's late father, mentioned as a former farmer.