# The Story of Doctor Dolittle — Character guide

> Key figures in The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting.

- [Doctor Dolittle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_doctor_dolittle_se/characters/doctor_dolittle.md): John Dolittle is the beloved doctor of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh, a man whose house overflows with rabbits, mice, a hedgehog, and a parrot named Polynesia. When his animal menagerie drives away every paying patient and his s
- [Jip](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_doctor_dolittle_se/characters/jip.md): Jip is one of the Doctor's five favorite pets, a dog who stays close whether his master is tending sick animals on the lawn or losing his last patients to a hedgehog on the sofa. Where the household grumbles, Jip simply 
- [Polynesia](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_doctor_dolittle_se/characters/polynesia.md): Polynesia sits in the window of the Dolittle house, watching leaves blow and mocking humans for thinking themselves so wonderful when the only animal word they understand is a wagging tail. She is the one who first teach
- [Gub-Gub](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_doctor_dolittle_se/characters/gub_gub.md): Gub-Gub is the household's comic appetite, a pig more interested in the next meal than in the Doctor's grand mission, and he is often found poking his snout toward whatever kitchen is nearest. That greed makes him both a
- [Chee-Chee](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_doctor_dolittle_se/characters/chee_chee.md): Chee-Chee belongs to the expanding household of animals that Dolittle collects as his human practice collapses, one of the creatures who stays because the Doctor never has the heart to send anyone away. As a monkey, he c
- [Dab-Dab](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_doctor_dolittle_se/characters/dab_dab.md): Dab-Dab is one of the five favorite pets who share the Doctor's small house, and she is the one who behaves as though someone has to be sensible about it. Where Polynesia philosophizes and Gub-Gub eats, Dab-Dab manages —
- [Too-Too](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_doctor_dolittle_se/characters/too_too.md): Too-Too belongs to the tight circle of favorite pets — Dab-Dab, Jip, Gub-Gub, Polynesia — who fill Doctor Dolittle's parlor and slowly empty it of paying patients. Where Polynesia chatters and Gub-Gub frets, the owl watc
- [Prince Bumpo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_doctor_dolittle_se/characters/prince_bumpo.md): Prince Bumpo enters the story as a young royal whose longing for a princess he cannot have drives him to desperate, storybook measures. His wish to change his own skin to win her love is both comic and quietly sad, revea
- [Ben Ali](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_doctor_dolittle_se/characters/ben_ali.md): Ben Ali rules the waters the Doctor's voyage must cross, a pirate whose reputation alone is enough to make sailors change course. He is the story's blunt instrument of menace — greedy, quick to violence, and utterly unim
- [Sarah Dolittle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_doctor_dolittle_se/characters/sarah_dolittle.md): Doctor Dolittle's sister, who disapproves of his animal-filled household.
- [King of the Jolliginki](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_doctor_dolittle_se/characters/king_of_jolliginki.md): A proud African king who imprisons Polynesia and later releases her.
- [Ermintrude](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_doctor_dolittle_se/characters/ermintrude.md): The queen of the Jolliginki who helps Polynesia escape from the king.
- [Leader of the Lions](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_doctor_dolittle_se/characters/leader_of_lions.md): The noble lion who leads his pride to help Doctor Dolittle build the bridge of apes.
- [Chief Chimpanzee](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_doctor_dolittle_se/characters/chief_chimpanzee.md): The leader of the monkey council who requests Doctor Dolittle's help.
- [White Men](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_story_of_doctor_dolittle_se/characters/white_men.md): European sailors and traders encountered during the Doctor's voyage to Africa.

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