Character guide

Helen Ambrose

major

Also known as Helen, Ambrose, Aunt Eleanor, Eleanor, Mrs. Ambrose

Helen Ambrose moves through the ship and the South American hotel with an independence that unsettles the conventional English around her, offering Rachel books and unfiltered conversation instead of the insincerity she despises. Yet she would deny she influences anyone, and her own mind drifts into sudden, vertiginous questions about existence and dissolution. Her willingness to let Rachel think for herself makes her the quiet engine of the girl's awakening, and the novel's most clear-eyed witness to it.

Terence Hewet

major

Also known as Hewet, Mr. Hewet, old Hewet

Terence Hewet arrives in Santa Marina as a writer among talkers, more interested in human beings than in the earth swept clean of them, and drawn to Rachel precisely for the impersonality her music produces. He works at his novel and at understanding her simultaneously, scribbling queries about women's honour and optimism while she climbs Beethoven and ignores him. His courtship gives the middle of the book its tentative, hopeful center, and his writerly habit of observing everything makes him both Rachel's closest companion and a lens on her change.

Rachel Vinrace

major

Also known as Miss Rachel Vinrace, Miss Vinrace, Vinrace, Miss Rachel

Rachel Vinrace has been raised among aunts and Bach, handling written sentences as if they were wooden objects and taking modern novels with a seriousness no one around her shares. When Richard Dalloway kisses her, she is thrown into a strangeness of feeling she cannot name, and Helen's patient questioning begins to draw her out. Her voyage from passenger to person — through music, books, and first love — is the arc the entire novel leans toward.

St. John Hirst

supporting

Also known as Hirst, St., St. John Alaric Hirst, St. John Hirst, Poor old Hirst

St. John Hirst argues politics with the men, needles Helen with complaints, and treats the South American expedition as a holiday that stubbornly refuses to become one. He is impatient with Hewet and Rachel's silent self-absorption, half-annoyed to find them in love, and half-envious of any feeling strong enough to occupy a person. His restless, sardonic intelligence gives the novel's social scenes their edge and quietly measures how little the cleverest talk can do against real experience.

Mrs. Thornbury

supporting

Also known as Thornbury, old numskull Thornbury

Mrs. Thornbury seizes Rachel's arm to announce she guessed the match from the start, then folds the news into reminiscences of typhoid in Venice and the stricter courtships of her youth. She is endlessly kind and endlessly conventional, mothering the hotel's invalids and offering young people a happiness she insists will only improve with time. Her cheerful certainties form the social backdrop against which Rachel's more private, unclassifiable feelings stand out.

Mrs. Flushing

supporting

Also known as Mrs. Wilfrid Flushing, Wilfrid Flushing, Flushing

Mrs. Flushing joins the river expedition with an appetite for sensation, exclaiming over the hut where the explorer's body and notebook were found while her well-dressed husband supplies the facts. She befriends Rachel with the same unguarded enthusiasm she brings to everything, treating the sultry, alarming country as an adventure rather than a discomfort. Her vivid, slightly reckless curiosity throws the more restrained English travelers into relief and gives Rachel a glimpse of a woman who takes the world head-on.

Miss Allan

supporting

Also known as Miss Allen

Miss Allan belongs to the floating colony of English visitors who shuttle between the Ambroses' villa and the hotel, one of those acquaintances whose presence makes Santa Marina feel like a transplanted drawing-room. She teaches, reads, and watches, and her judgments carry a dry kindness that the more self-absorbed guests rarely notice. In a novel preoccupied with what people leave unsaid, she is one of the few who sees clearly and says little, a steady counterweight to the emotional weather around her.

Susan Warrington

supporting

Also known as Susan, Warrington, Susan Jane, Miss Warrington

Susan has spent years as unpaid companion to her selfish old aunt, Mrs. Paley, and her engagement to Arthur Venning transforms her from drudge to bride with a handsome present in view. The change floods her with warmth toward everyone, yet her diary entries and her anxious self-scrutiny reveal how much of her happiness is borrowed from others' approval. She matters as the novel's portrait of conventional English womanhood, content with the life Rachel will find herself unable to accept.

Mrs. Dalloway

supporting

Also known as Mrs. Richard Dalloway, Clarissa, Clarice, Aunt Clara

Mrs. Dalloway arrives on the ship in a stir of leather bags and compliments, a woman of a class where everything is specially arranged and everyone is known. Charming, worldly, and slightly theatrical, she turns her attention on Rachel and awakens in her a sudden, painful sense that her own face and life are not what she wants. Her brief visit is the first crack in Rachel's provincial innocence, and the novel's earliest glimpse of the larger English world waiting beyond the voyage.

Mr. Pepper

minor

Also known as Pepper, William Pepper, William

An elderly, pedantic scholar traveling with the Ambroses.

Arthur Venning

supporting

Also known as Mr. Arthur Venning, Venning, Mr. Venning, Arthur

Arthur is a conventional young Englishman whose courtship of Susan rescues her from years of being overlooked at her father's parsonage. His attentions are steady rather than passionate, and Susan spends her private hours puzzling over what he thinks of her rather than what she feels for him. He matters as the safe harbor the novel sets beside Rachel's unsettled longing, a reminder of the ordinary marriage plot this book keeps refusing to become.

Ridley Ambrose

supporting

Also known as Ridley, Uncle Ridley, Mr. Ambrose

Ridley Ambrose is a classical scholar whose edition of Pindar matters more to him than the social life his wife manages around him. He grumbles about the washing of his shirts, about the bore Hughling Elliot, about seeing too many people, yet he cannot simply turn anyone from the door. His distracted erudition and conjugal patter with Helen establish the villa as a place of books and unspoken tensions, the intellectual backdrop against which Rachel's education begins.

Willoughby Vinrace

minor

Also known as Vinrace, Mr. Vinrace

Rachel's father, a shipowner who arranges the voyage.

Mr. Perrott

minor

Also known as Perrott, old Perrott, Alfred Perrott, Alfred

A quiet, older gentleman who courts Miss Allan.

Mrs. Hughling Elliot

minor

Also known as Mrs. Elliot, Hughling, Hughling Elliot, Elliot

A gossipy, social-climbing passenger on the voyage.

Mr. Wilfrid Flushing

minor

Also known as Mr. Flushing, Wilfrid Flushing, Wilfrid

Mrs. Flushing's husband, a wealthy art collector.

Mrs. Chailey

minor

Also known as Chailey

The Ambroses' loyal, practical maid.

Mr. Bax

minor

Also known as Mr. William Bax, William

A clergyman who performs a wedding ceremony.

Dr. Lesage

minor

A French doctor consulted during Rachel's illness.

Evelyn Murgatroyd

supporting

Also known as Evelyn M., Evelyn, Evie, Miss Murgatroyd, Evelyn Murgatroyd

Evelyn Murgatroyd moves through the hotel in a whirl of crushes, causes, and sudden enthusiasms, from Alfred and Sinclair to a plan for abolishing prostitution within six months. She demands that Rachel join her Saturday Club and turn from art to life, and her ironic challenge—what do you actually do?—pricks at Rachel's passivity. She matters as the novel's study of restless modern energy that never quite settles, a foil to Rachel's slower, stranger inwardness.

Richard Dalloway

minor

Also known as Mr. Richard Dalloway, Mr. Dalloway, Dalloway

A conservative politician who briefly visits the ship with his wife.

Hughling Elliot

minor

Also known as Mr. Hughling Elliot, Mr. Elliot, Elliot

A pompous academic and husband of Mrs. Hughling Elliot.

Father Damien

minor

Also known as Father

A missionary mentioned in passing.

Mrs. Paley

minor

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

An elderly, invalid passenger who requires constant care.

Dr. Rodriguez

minor

Also known as Rodriguez, Signor Rodriguez

A local doctor in South America who treats Rachel.

Mr. Grice

minor

A ship's officer who gives Rachel a tour of the vessel.

Nurse McInnis

minor

A nurse who attends to Mrs. Paley.

The Flushings

minor

Also known as Flushings

The couple who host an expedition into the jungle.

The Ambroses

minor

Also known as Ambroses

Helen and Ridley Ambrose as a couple.

The Dalloways

minor

Also known as Dalloways

Richard and Clarissa Dalloway as a couple.

The Elliots

minor

Also known as Elliots

Mr. and Mrs. Hughling Elliot as a couple.

The Thornburys

minor

Also known as Thornburys

Mr. and Mrs. Thornbury as a couple.

Lillah Harrison

minor

Also known as Lillah

A young woman mentioned in conversation, possibly a friend.

Aunt Lucy

minor

An elderly relative mentioned by Susan Warrington.

Theresa

minor

A deceased aunt of Rachel's, mentioned in passing.

Aunt Emma

minor

An elderly relative mentioned by the Thornburys.

Old Alice

minor

Also known as Alice

An elderly servant or relative mentioned in conversation.

Mrs. Parry

minor

Also known as Mrs. Raymond Parry

A society hostess mentioned by the Dalloways.

Lady Maud

minor

Also known as Maud

An aristocratic acquaintance mentioned in conversation.

Mrs. Jackson

minor

Also known as poor old Jackson, little Jackson, Jackson

An elderly woman mentioned as a neighbor or acquaintance.

Mrs. Hunt

minor

A woman mentioned in passing by the characters.

Mrs. Murgatroyd

minor

Evelyn's mother, mentioned in conversation.

Captain Richards

minor

A ship captain mentioned in passing.

Lola Mendoza

minor

A local woman mentioned in South America.

Raymond Oliver

minor

Also known as Oliver

A young man mentioned in conversation by the characters.

Maurice Fielding

minor

Also known as Fielding, Maurice

A friend of Hewet's, mentioned in letters.

Jenkinson

minor

Also known as Jenkinson of Peterhouse

An academic acquaintance of Hirst's.

Lord Glenaway

minor

An aristocrat mentioned in conversation.

Lady Barborough

minor

Also known as old Lady Barborough

An elderly society figure mentioned by the characters.

Lady Theo Bingham Bingley

minor

Also known as Lady Theo

A titled acquaintance mentioned in conversation.

Aunt Bessie

minor

An elderly relative mentioned by one of the characters.

Muriel

minor

A young woman mentioned in passing.

Alfred Perrott

minor

Also known as Alfred Perrot wo

Mr. Perrott's first name, used occasionally.

Sir Walter Elliott

minor

Also known as Sir, Sir Walter

A baronet mentioned in conversation as an acquaintance.

Rev. William Johnson

minor

Also known as William

A clergyman mentioned in passing.

Henry George

minor

Also known as George

A political economist mentioned in conversation.

Herbert Spencer

minor

Also known as Hubert

A philosopher mentioned in intellectual discussions.

Rev. Sidney Hirst

minor

A clergyman relative of St. John Hirst.

Hirst of Hirstbourne Hall

minor

A wealthy relative of St. John Hirst, mentioned in passing.

Dick

minor

A young man mentioned in conversation by the characters.

Hugh

minor

A man mentioned in conversation, possibly a friend.

Sinclair

minor

An acquaintance mentioned in conversation.

Bennett

minor

A servant or acquaintance mentioned in passing.

Sabrina

minor

A name used in a poem or song, possibly a character reference.

Euphrosyne

minor

The name of the ship on which the characters travel.

La Cousine Bette

minor

Also known as Betty, Elizabeth

A novel mentioned in conversation by the characters.

The English

minor

A collective reference to English people in the narrative.

Jane Austen

minor

Also known as Jane

The novelist, mentioned in conversation.

Shelley

minor

The poet, mentioned in conversation.

Shakespeare

minor

The playwright, mentioned in conversation.

Alexander Pope

minor

Also known as Pope, Sandy

The poet, mentioned in conversation.

Sappho

minor

The ancient Greek poet, mentioned in conversation.

Pindar

minor

The ancient Greek poet, mentioned as Ridley's scholarly focus.

Bach

minor

The composer, mentioned in conversation.

Cowper

minor

Also known as William Cowper

The poet, mentioned in conversation.

Burke

minor

The philosopher or statesman, mentioned in conversation.

Christ

minor

A religious figure mentioned in passing.

Sancho

minor

A name used in a literary reference or conversation.

Dear Bernard

minor

A person addressed in a letter or conversation.

Maria

minor

Also known as May

A woman mentioned in conversation by the characters.