Character guide

Thea Kronborg

major

Also known as Thea, Miss Kronborg, Miss Thea

Thea Kronborg is the odd, gifted child of a large Swedish family in Moonstone, taking piano lessons from a failing German and singing in the church choir while her neighbors find her proud and her sisters find her strange. What sets her apart is not just talent but appetite — a hunger for something larger that makes ordinary courtship and small-town piety feel like a slow suffocation. Her early arc is the story of a girl testing whether her desire is real or merely vain, and whether anyone around her can see what she hears when she plays.

Dr. Howard Archie

major

Also known as Dr. Archie, Archie, Howard Archie

Dr. Archie is the doctor everyone in Moonstone trusts and the man whose own marriage has gone sour in a way he never quite names aloud. He is drawn to Thea not romantically but with a kind of quixotic faith — he sees her gift clearly and keeps finding ways to fund it, defend it, and push her toward Denver and beyond. His steady, unglamorous devotion gives the novel its moral center: the quiet adult who believes in a child's future enough to spend himself on it.

Fred Ottenburg

major

Also known as Fred, Ottenburg, Fred Ottenburg, Young Fred

Fred Ottenburg moves easily through moneyed, musical circles — the son of a beer magnate, welcome at Mrs. Nathanmeyer's table, fluent in the language of patronage and praise. He is genuinely discerning about voices, and he is also a man with reservations, as Dr. Archie senses, someone whose enthusiasms are real but whose life is not entirely his own to give. His interest in Thea is aesthetic, romantic, and self-interested at once, and that tangle is what makes him central to her middle years.

Ray Kennedy

supporting

Also known as Ray, Kennedy, Ray H. Kennedy

Ray Kennedy is a wandering, self-educated man who reads Ingersoll in the caboose and speaks Spanish like a different person south of the border. He has a high standard of personal honor, a sentimental reverence for women, and a lifelong habit of holding on too long or letting go too soon in every scheme he touches. His patient, unglamorous affection for Thea — and the modest legacy he leaves her — becomes one of the quiet hinges on which her departure from Moonstone turns.

Mrs. Kronborg

supporting

Also known as Kronborg

Mrs. Kronborg is the practical center of the Kronborg household, a woman who browns coffee, manages a brood of children, and tells the Ladies' Aid exactly what she thinks about standard composers. She is not sentimental about her daughter's talent, but she is not dismissive of it either — she simply makes room for it, the way she makes room for everything else. Her steady, unsentimental competence is the ground Thea stands on when she begins to imagine leaving Moonstone.

Herr Wunsch

supporting

Also known as Wunsch, Professor Wunsch, old Wunsch

Herr Wunsch is a broken-down musician giving lessons in Moonstone for whatever the town will pay, drinking more than he should and remembering a Europe he will never see again. He is the first person to tell Thea that her gift is real and that learning German, learning lieder, learning anything is possible if she wants it badly enough. His phrase — that there is only one big thing, desire — becomes the seed of her whole ambition, even as his own life shows her what happens when desire is not enough.

Tillie Kronborg

supporting

Also known as Tillie

Thea's sentimental, scrapbook-keeping aunt, whose small-town life is redeemed by the conviction that she was meant to touch something wonderful.

Mrs. Harsanyi

supporting

Also known as Harsanyi

The Hungarian pianist's wife in Chicago, who reads her husband's disappointments with clear eyes and absorbs the wounds his frustrated ambition leaves behind.

Spanish Johnny

minor

Also known as Johnny, Spanish

A Mexican musician in Moonstone who recognizes Thea's talent early on.

Mr. Kronborg

supporting

Also known as Kronborg, the Reverend Mr. Kronborg

Thea's father, a Methodist minister whose sermons and standing in Moonstone quietly shape the household his daughter is straining to escape.

Mr. Bowers

minor

Also known as Bowers

The local music teacher and organist in Moonstone.

Thor

minor

One of Thea's younger brothers in the Kronborg family.

Mrs. Kohler

minor

Also known as Old Mrs. Kohler, old Mrs. Kohler

An elderly German neighbor who befriends Thea and Herr Wunsch.

Andor Harsanyi

supporting

Also known as Harsanyi, little Andor

Thea's Chicago piano teacher, a brilliant Hungarian whose own career has stalled, and who stakes his remaining hope on a stubborn, incurious girl from Colorado.

Madison Bowers

minor

Also known as Bowers

A voice teacher in Chicago who trains Thea.

Mrs. Tellamantez

minor

A Mexican woman in Moonstone who hosts dances.

Mr. Larsen

minor

A resident of Moonstone, possibly a shopkeeper.

Fritz Kohler

minor

Also known as Fritz, old Fritz

Mrs. Kohler's husband, a German immigrant and gardener.

Rev. Lars Larsen

minor

Also known as Larry, Lars, the Reverend Larsen

A Methodist minister who sometimes preaches in Moonstone.

Mrs. Andersen

minor

A neighbor in Moonstone.

Mrs. Archie

minor

Also known as little Mrs. Archie

Dr. Archie's invalid wife.

Peter Kronborg

minor

Also known as Kronborg, the Reverend Peter Kronborg

Thea's grandfather, a retired minister.

Henry Biltmer

minor

Also known as Henry, Old Biltmer, old Henry

An old German farmer near Moonstone.

Gunner

minor

Also known as Mr. Gunner

A Swedish railroad worker in Moonstone.

Anna Belle White

minor

Also known as Belle White, Belle

A girl in Moonstone, part of Thea's social circle.

Mrs. Livery Johnson

minor

Also known as Mrs. Johnson, Johnson

A woman who runs a boarding house in Moonstone.

Mrs. Lorch

minor

Also known as Old Mrs. Lorch

An elderly woman in Moonstone.

Lily Fisher

minor

Also known as Lily, Miss Lily Fisher

A pretty but shallow girl in Moonstone.

Mrs. Priest

minor

A woman in Moonstone who hosts social gatherings.

Axel

minor

One of Thea's younger brothers.

Miss Edith Beers

minor

Also known as Miss Beers, Beers, Edith

A friend of Thea's from Moonstone who later works in Chicago.

Joe Giddy

minor

Also known as Giddy, Mr. Giddy

A local character in Moonstone.

Miss Darcey

minor

A young woman in Moonstone, possibly a friend of Thea's.

Jessie Darcey

minor

Also known as Jessie

A young woman from Moonstone who moves to Chicago.

Mr. Nathanmeyer

minor

Also known as old Mr. Nathanmeyer

An elderly Jewish shopkeeper in Moonstone.

Mrs. Nathanmeyer

minor

The wife of the shopkeeper in Moonstone.

Sieglinde

minor

An opera character Thea performs; also a figure in her imagination.

Old Jasper Flight

minor

Also known as Jasper Flight, Jasper

An eccentric old man living near Moonstone.

Mrs. Dandridge

minor

A society woman in Chicago who supports Thea.

Necker

minor

Also known as Madame Necker

A historical figure mentioned in Thea's reading.

Pauline Hall

minor

Also known as Paulina

A singer Thea meets in Chicago.

Nordquist

minor

Also known as Fru Nordquist

A Swedish woman in Moonstone.

Charley

minor

A young man in Moonstone, possibly a suitor of Thea's.

Selma

minor

A Swedish girl in Moonstone.

Silvo

minor

A young Mexican boy in Moonstone.

Gus

minor

One of Thea's younger brothers.

Elizabeth

minor

A friend of Thea's from Moonstone.

Oscar Andersen

minor

Also known as Oscar

A burly Swedish farmer near Moonstone.

Mr. Eckman

minor

Also known as Eckman

A shopkeeper in Moonstone.

Captain Harris

minor

Also known as Harry, old Captain Harris

An old sea captain living in Moonstone.

Old Mr. Carsen

minor

An elderly resident of Moonstone.

Tanya

minor

A Russian woman Thea meets in Chicago.

Fräulein Furst

minor

A German woman who runs a boarding house in Chicago.

Billy Beemer

minor

Also known as Uncle Billy, Uncle Billy Beemer

An old man in Moonstone.

Grace Johnson

minor

Also known as Grace

A girl in Moonstone.

Maggie Evans

minor

Also known as Maggie

A dreary woman in Moonstone.

Katarina Furst

minor

Also known as Katarina

The once-proud mother of Fräulein Furst.

Van Dusen

minor

Also known as Van

A railroad man and friend of Ray Kennedy.

Miss Spencer

minor

A teacher in Moonstone.

Old Otto Ottenburg

minor

Also known as Otto Ottenburg

Fred Ottenburg's father, a wealthy beer magnate.

Mrs. Biltmer

minor

Also known as Biltmer

Henry Biltmer's wife.

Miguel Ramas

minor

Also known as Ramas

A Mexican man in Moonstone.

Mrs. Miguel Ramas

minor

The wife of Miguel Ramas.

Dick Brisbane

minor

Also known as Brisbane, young Brisbane

A young man in Moonstone.

Mr. Beers

minor

Edith Beers' father.

Gloeckler

minor

Also known as Madame Gloeckler

A singer Thea meets in Chicago.