# The Wings of the Dove — Character guide

> Key figures in The Wings of the Dove by Henry James.

- [Merton Densher](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wings_of_the_dove_se/characters/merton_densher.md): A clever, threadbare London journalist whose secret engagement to Kate Croy forces him to weigh love against the price of worldly advancement.
- [Kate Croy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wings_of_the_dove_se/characters/kate_croy.md): Beautiful, clear-eyed, and dangerously practical, she waits in her father's shabby rooms for an interview she already knows will be the worst.
- [Milly Theale](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wings_of_the_dove_se/characters/milly_theale.md): A rich, generous young American heiress arrives in Europe hungry for life, unaware how much her fortune and her fragility excite the designs of others.
- [Susan Stringham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wings_of_the_dove_se/characters/susan_stringham.md): A widowed American writer and Milly's devoted companion, she watches her young friend's European adventure with maternal tenderness and mounting unease.
- [Lord Mark](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wings_of_the_dove_se/characters/lord_mark.md): A polished, impecunious English aristocrat who courts Milly Theale with the easy assurance of a man who has always been welcomed everywhere.
- [Maud Lowder](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wings_of_the_dove_se/characters/maud_lowder.md): Kate's formidable, richly upholstered aunt, whose vast drawing-room at Lancaster Gate is a stage on which marriages are arranged and fortunes weighed.
- [Sir Luke Strett](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wings_of_the_dove_se/characters/sir_luke_strett.md): Sir Luke Strett moves through the novel as the doctor everyone wishes to consult and no one quite knows how to read, summoned by well-meaning friends to pronounce on Milly's condition. His professional calm is both a mer
- [Marian Condrip](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wings_of_the_dove_se/characters/marian_condrip.md): Kate's widowed sister, struggling with poverty and her children.
- [Eugenio](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wings_of_the_dove_se/characters/eugenio.md): Milly's Italian courier and servant in Venice.
- [Lionel Croy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wings_of_the_dove_se/characters/lionel_croy.md): Kate's disreputable, estranged father who seeks money from her.

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