The Water-Babies · Character

Mr. Grimes

Tom's brutal master, a drinking, poaching chimney sweep whose cruelty sends the boy up the wrong flue and whose fate haunts Tom's new life underwater.

supporting

Also known as Grimes, old Grimes, poor Mr. Grimes

First appearance: The Water-Babies

As a supporting figure in The Water-Babies, Mr. Grimes is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.

Tom's harsh master, a chimney-sweep who mistreats him.

In the storyThe Water-BabiesOpen this moment free

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Grimes is the novel's first portrait of adult vice: he beats his apprentice, poaches salmon, and treats the world as something to be taken. When Tom, as a water-baby, returns to the pool where Grimes fell, he half-expects his old master to have transformed too — but Grimes simply vanishes, carried off by the fairies to wherever things that fall into water truly belong. The dread of meeting him again shadows Tom's downstream journey, and the narrator's wry aside that drowning for twenty-four hours is the only cure for a confirmed poacher turns Grimes into both a warning and a joke the book keeps telling on itself.

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Character Web

3 connections

A slice of how Mr. Grimes sits in the book — open the reader for the full interactive map.

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Other

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Satirical and moral exemplars
Protagonist
Moral guides and allegories

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Narrative arc

Story tension across the book.

Setup
Breaking point
Aftermath
Closing

This is the story's dramatic climax because it marks the emotional and psychological peak of Tom’s moral crisi…

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In the story

Mr. Grimes appears across 6 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

The Water-Babies
Tom's harsh master, a chimney-sweep who mistreats him.
I
Grimes is Tom's master, a chimney-sweep who knocks Tom down and leads him to Harthover Place.
Chapter II
Mr. Grimes waits for Tom's return, reports him missing to the police, and later goes to Harthover Place, where he drinks ale while waiting for Sir John.
III
Tom has forgotten all about his master Grimes and the bad words he learned from him, indicating a clean break from his former life.
Chapter VI
Tom is told he must go after Mr. Grimes, whom he does not like, as part of his task to reach the beautiful place.
The Other-end-of-Nowhere
Grimes is found trapped in a chimney, weeping with remorse. His own tears wash away the soot and mortar, leading to his release and a chance at redemption.

Chapter companion notes

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