# The Sport of the Gods — Character guide

> Key figures in The Sport of the Gods by Paul Laurence Dunbar.

- [Joe Hamilton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/joe_hamilton.md): Joe is Berry Hamilton's son, a spruce and quick-witted youth who finds every door in his Southern hometown shut the moment his father is led away in handcuffs. Turned away from even a bellman's job because the other boys
- [Berry Hamilton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/berry_hamilton.md): Berry has served the Oakley household for two decades with a care so exacting that he tucks his employer into bed after dinner and keeps every valuable safe. When a missing sum is discovered, his spotless record counts f
- [Kitty Hamilton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/kitty_hamilton.md): Kitty is the daughter whose full, rich voice charms the family's new acquaintance Mr. Thomas, and whose shy girlishness makes her mother uneasy about the company they are keeping. Where Joe hardens, Kitty adapts, drawn t
- [Maurice Oakley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/maurice_oakley.md): Oakley is a solid man of business who hosts the town's best company and dotes on his charming brother Francis, arranging parties to send him off in style. When money goes missing, he converts two decades of faithful serv
- [Fannie Hamilton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/fannie_hamilton.md): Fannie is the wife who collapses at the word 'arrest' and then refuses to be sent from the room, crying that she will stay right there by her husband. She appeals in vain to Mrs. Oakley, the last person she believes migh
- [Francis Oakley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/francis_oakley.md): Francis is the life of every gathering, a poet-faced artist with wit, daring, and just enough hinted danger to make him irresistible, especially to Claire Lessing, whom Maurice and his wife would love to see him marry. H
- [Mr. Skaggs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/mr_skaggs.md): Skaggs is the kind of newsman who understands that a great paper can manufacture justice as readily as it manufactures scandal, and he pursues Berry's release with one eye on the Governor and the other on his own byline.
- [Hattie Sterling](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/hattie_sterling.md): Hattie Sterling is the woman whose attention makes Joe feel chosen, and whose withdrawal unmakes him; she is at once his patron, his lover, and the mirror in which he sees his own decline. Her patience has limits, and wh
- [Mr. Thomas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/mr_thomas.md): Mr. Thomas is the first New York acquaintance the Hamilton family makes, a loquacious club man and theatrical hanger-on who offers Joe a taste of metropolitan life before Joe has any idea what it will cost. His easy gene
- [Mrs. Oakley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/mrs_oakley.md): Mrs. Oakley presides over the farewell dinner for Francis with the ease of a woman who has never let a guest wait awkwardly for a meal, and she watches her brother-in-law's flirtation with Claire Lessing with a fondness 
- [Minty Brown](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/minty_brown.md): A gossipy neighbor who spreads rumors about the Hamiltons.
- [Sadness](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/sadness.md): A comic character, possibly a dog or a personification of gloom.
- [Martin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/martin.md): A friend or acquaintance of the Hamiltons in New York.
- [Mrs. Jones](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/jones.md): A neighbor or landlady in the Hamilton's New York building.
- [Claire Lessing](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/claire_lessing.md): A young woman who becomes involved with Joe in New York.
- [Beachfield Davis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/beachfield_davis.md): A friend of the Oakley family, possibly a lawyer or gentleman.
- [Lady Leslie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/lady_leslie.md): A socialite mentioned in connection with the Oakleys.
- [Colonel Saunders](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/colonel_saunders.md): A Southern gentleman and friend of the Oakley family.
- [Horace Talbot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/horace_talbot.md): An elderly acquaintance of the Oakleys, possibly a judge.
- [Esterton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/esterton.md): A place or possibly a person mentioned in passing.
- [Old Isaac Brown](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/old_isaac_brown.md): An elderly black man in the community, possibly Minty's husband.
- [Mrs. Gibson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_sport_of_the_gods_se/characters/mrs_gibson.md): A neighbor or acquaintance of the Hamiltons.

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