# The Titan — Character guide

> Key figures in The Titan by Theodore Dreiser.

- [Frank A. Cowperwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/frank_cowperwood.md): Cowperwood moves through Chicago as a rising operator—buying gas franchises, courting society through Aileen's new house, and studying the art collections of wealthier men with the same calculation he brings to street-ra
- [Aileen Cowperwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/aileen_cowperwood.md): Aileen has spent years as Cowperwood's partner in ambition, but in Chicago she feels the ground shifting: he strays, she knows it, and she studies her own mirror for the flaw that explains it. Her fury is not passive—she
- [Berenice Fleming](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/berenice_fleming.md): Berenice—Bevy—has been made persona non grata by her mother's reputation, yet she carries herself as though the world's opinion were a minor inconvenience. Suitors like Bowdoin and Marcado fall away once whispers reach t
- [Stephanie Platow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/stephanie_platow.md): Stephanie moves in the Garrick Players' orbit, all soulfulness and dramatic ambition, and Cowperwood is drawn to her precisely because she resists his usual methods. He learns she is not the innocent he assumed, and her 
- [Harold Sohlberg](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/harold_sohlberg.md): Husband of Rita Sohlberg and friend of Cowperwood, involved in social circles.
- [Rita Sohlberg](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/rita_sohlberg.md): Rita Sohlberg moves through Chicago's receptions in pale blue and lavender, married to Harold and friendly with Aileen—while keeping trysts with Cowperwood under an assumed name on the North Side. When Aileen corners her
- [Polk Lynde](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/polk_lynde.md): Lynde is the kind of man who loses fifteen thousand in a night and wins twenty-five the next, all with the same easy smile, and he fixes his hard, meaning glances on Aileen across the gambling tables. He leans over her p
- [Patrick Gilgan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/patrick_gilgan.md): Gilgan belongs to the gritty machine politics of South Clark Street, where saloons, gambling dens, and a pliable city council form the real government of the wards. He has spent years beating back the McKenty opposition 
- [Norman Schryhart](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/norman_schryhart.md): Schryhart is broad-shouldered, black-eyed, and used to ruling any enterprise he enters; he prefers to own the table rather than share it. When he summons Cowperwood to discuss combining the old gas companies, he assumes 
- [Ira George Carter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/ira_george_carter.md): Businessman and associate of Cowperwood in various financial ventures.
- [Addison Cowperwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/addison_cowperwood.md): Addison is the weaker of the two brothers yet forceful in his own way, a man who has spent fifty years in banking and knows how many respected Chicago fortunes began in murkier waters. When Frank volunteers the story of 
- [Antoinette Nowak](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/antoinette_nowak.md): Young woman who becomes involved with Cowperwood briefly as a romantic interest.
- [Hosmer Hand](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/hosmer_hand.md): Hand is a man of few experiences with women, and his young wife's affair with Cowperwood astonishes and enrages him precisely because he had been so fond of her. His standing as a director in the city's principal financi
- [Judah Addison](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/judah_addison.md): Addison moves through the city's private collections, clubs, and drawing rooms as a strong, polite, remote man who understands the value of social sponsorship. By backing Cowperwood for club membership and lending his na
- [Timothy Arneel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/timothy_arneel.md): Arneel speaks in a low, husky voice with the unconscious arrogance of a man who has never needed to explain where his information comes from. As chairman of the gathering called to save American Match, he lays out the te
- [Chaffee Thayer Sluss](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/chaffee_thayer_sluss.md): Raised on a harness wholesaler's fortune and married into a pickle manufacturer's family, Sluss preens as an essentially honest man while quietly eyeing plump blondes. His smug certainty that Providence protects his pros
- [Michael Tiernan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/michael_tiernan.md): From ditch-digging to a city council seat, Tiernan has parlayed The Silver Moon and its gambling and prostitution revenues into a ward machine that Cowperwood and McKenty must either buy or break. He has always managed t
- [Peter Laughlin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/peter_laughlin.md): Cowperwood annexed old Laughlin the way a surgeon selects a special knife — useful, obedient, and destined to be no more than a tool in stronger hands. Naive and strange yet canny enough to hustle, Laughlin lends his fir
- [Benoni Stackpole](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/benoni_stackpole.md): Businessman and associate of Cowperwood in financial ventures.
- [Anson Merrill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/anson_merrill.md): Merrill belongs to the settled commercial class whose approval Cowperwood both covets and disdains, and whose wife's social verdicts help police Chicago's drawing rooms. His presence sharpens the novel's central tension:
- [Lieutenant Braxmar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/lieutenant_braxmar.md): Military officer and suitor of Berenice Fleming before Cowperwood.
- [Governor Swanson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/governor_swanson.md): State governor involved in political dealings with Cowperwood.
- [Haguenin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/haguenin.md): French businessman and associate of Cowperwood in international dealings.
- [Henry De Soto Sippens](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/henry_de_soto_sippens.md): Energetic young businessman who works for Cowperwood's street railway interests.
- [Bevy Fleming](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/bevy_fleming.md): Younger sister of Berenice Fleming, part of the Fleming family.
- [Kent Barrows McKibben](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/kent_barrows_mckibben.md): Politician and associate of Cowperwood in legislative matters.
- [Forbes Gurney](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/forbes_gurney.md): Friend and social companion of Cowperwood in Chicago.
- [Cecily Haguenin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/cecily_haguenin.md): Daughter of Haguenin, a young woman in Parisian society.
- [Young Kaffrath](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/young_kaffrath.md): Young businessman involved in Cowperwood's financial operations.
- [Mr. Kennedy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/mr_kennedy.md): Young businessman and associate of Cowperwood.
- [Truman Leslie MacDonald](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/truman_leslie_macdonald.md): Young businessman and son of old General MacDonald, involved in politics.
- [Haeckelheimer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/haeckelheimer.md): German-American financier and business associate of Cowperwood.
- [Harper Steger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/harper_steger.md): Lawyer and legal advisor to Frank Cowperwood.
- [Gotloeb](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/gotloeb.md): Businessman and associate of Cowperwood in financial matters.
- [Gardner Knowles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/gardner_knowles.md): Architect who designs Cowperwood's Chicago mansion.
- [Lane Cross](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/lane_cross.md): Artist and friend of Stephanie Platow, involved in her circle.
- [Hattie Starr](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/hattie_starr.md): Young woman who becomes involved with Cowperwood as a mistress.
- [John J. McKenty](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/john_j_mckenty.md): McKenty commands the political machinery that Cowperwood needs and cannot build alone, trading influence for a share of the coming street-railway spoils. Even entrenched operators like Tiernan have always managed to down
- [Claudia Carlstadt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/claudia_carlstadt.md): Young woman briefly involved with Cowperwood in New York.
- [Mrs. Fredericka Batjer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/mrs_fredericka_batjer.md): Woman who manages a boarding house where Cowperwood stays.
- [Judge Nahum Dickensheets](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/judge_nahum_dickensheets.md): Judge involved in legal proceedings concerning Cowperwood.
- [Mr. Rambaud](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/mr_rambaud.md): French businessman and associate of Cowperwood in international finance.
- [Albert Thorsen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/albert_thorsen.md): Businessman and associate of Cowperwood in financial ventures.
- [Norrie Simms](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/norrie_simms.md): Wealthy socialite and rival of Cowperwood in Chicago society.
- [Fishel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/fishel.md): Businessman and associate of Cowperwood in financial ventures.
- [Taylor Lord](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/taylor_lord.md): Young man who courts Berenice Fleming briefly.
- [General Van Sickle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/general_van_sickle.md): Old military figure and political associate of Cowperwood.
- [Rolfe Carter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/rolfe_carter.md): Son of Ira George Carter, involved in business with Cowperwood.
- [Beales Chadsey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/beales_chadsey.md): Businessman and associate of Cowperwood.
- [Lillian Cowperwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/lillian_cowperwood.md): Frank's first wife, mother of his children, from whom he is divorced.
- [Kilmer Duelma](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_titan_se/characters/kilmer_duelma.md): Tall young man who courts Berenice Fleming briefly.

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