Character guide

The Angel

major

Also known as Angel, Mr. Angel, Delia, little Delia, Sandy Bright, the Strange Bird

Stripped of halo and glory, dressed in the Vicar's cast-off coat and trousers, the Angel wanders the parish as a hunchbacked stranger whose innocence reads as lunacy to nearly everyone he meets. His music, played at Lady Hammergallow's party and overheard by a servant girl in a gable, carries a sorrow he does not yet have words for. He matters because his naive questions about pain, work, and cruelty expose the ordinary world to itself, and because his presence splits the village into those who shelter him and those who want him gone.

Lady Hammergallow

supporting

Also known as old Lady Hammergallow, dear Lady Hammergallow, Hammergallow

Lady Hammergallow presides over Siddermorton's drawing-room world, where she discusses guineas and establishments while the Vicar sits beside her looking hot and rumpled. She is the one who makes things happen socially, and her verdict on the Angel shapes how the county receives him. Her power is quiet and total: to be approved by her is to be safe, and to be doubted by her is to be talked about, watched, and eventually acted against.

Doctor Crump

supporting

Also known as Crump, XLI Doctor Crump

Crump finds the Angel trespassing by the Sidder and treats him as either a lunatic at large or a knave, offering to certify him insane to get him out of the village. His real worry is the Vicar, whom he believes is being hypnotized into monomania by a fraud. He matters because he gives the story its hardest skeptical voice, and because his threat to act turns the Angel's stay from an embarrassment into a countdown.

Mrs. Mendham

supporting

Also known as Mendham, the Mendham

Mrs. Mendham hears the Angel story from her husband over bootlaces and firelight and immediately begins turning it into something usable, weighing whether the Vicar is mad, whether the Curate should write to the Bishop, and whether Hilyer could dismiss him anyway. She is not cruel so much as managerial: she sees the parish as a machine she operates and the Angel as grit in it. Her gossip is the mechanism by which private strangeness becomes public scandal.

Sir John Gotch

supporting

Also known as Gotch, Sir John

Sir John arrives at the Vicarage already briefed by Lady Hammergallow, convinced the Angel has been preaching Socialism to every yokel in the parish and cutting his wire as a demonstration. He is not a monster, just a man who sees property, class, and pheasant eggs as one continuous order under threat. He matters because he converts village unease into an ultimatum: the Angel leaves the parish, or proceedings begin.

The Vicar

major

Also known as Vicar, VIII The Vicar, the Vicar

The Vicar is the Angel's first host and interpreter, the man who names him, clothes him, and tries to explain pain, necessity, and leg of lamb to a guest who has never heard of any of them. His sermons have begun to slip, his tie is askew, and Doctor Crump thinks he is verging on monomania, but he keeps choosing the Angel over the parish's comfort. He matters because his slow transformation from respectable incumbent to someone who preaches 'Eye hath not seen' is the story's emotional center.

Mrs. Jehoram

minor

A village woman with a broad-minded view of the Angel.

Mr. Hilyer

minor

Also known as Hilyer

A local gentleman who interacts with the Angel.

Mrs. Hinijer

minor

Also known as XLIV Mrs. Hinijer

A village woman who takes action against the Angel.

Horrocks

minor

A local man who appears in the village scenes.

Mr. Wilmerdings

minor

Also known as Wilmerdings, old Wilmerdings

An elderly villager who comments on the Angel.

Mr. Rathbone Slater

minor

Also known as Mr. Rathbone - Slater

A visitor to the village who encounters the Angel.

Gully

minor

Also known as Gully of Sidderton

A man from Sidderton who saw the strange glare.

The Curate from Iping Hanger

minor

Also known as Iping Hanger

A visiting curate who debates the Angel's nature.

Grummet

minor

A local man who appears in village scenes.

Mother Gustick

minor

Also known as Mother

An elderly village woman, mother of Mrs. Gustick.

Lumpy Durgan

minor

Also known as Lumpy

A village boy who interacts with the Angel.

Annie Durgan

minor

Also known as Annie, Durgan

A village girl, possibly related to Lumpy Durgan.

Borland

minor

A local man mentioned in the village.

George Harringay

minor

Also known as George

A villager involved in the Angel's adventures.

Mrs. Pirbright

minor

A village woman with a daughter who meets the Angel.

Mrs. Gustick

minor

Also known as intervening scarlet runners Mrs. Gustick

A village woman who interacts with the Angel.

Miss Papaver

minor

Also known as The eldest Miss Papaver, the very eldest Miss Papaver

The eldest of the Papaver sisters, a local spinster.

Miss Pirbright

minor

Also known as the younger Miss Pirbright

The younger daughter of Mrs. Pirbright, interested in the Angel.

Hawkins

minor

A servant or villager in the story.

Jessica Jehoram

minor

Also known as Jessie

Daughter of Mrs. Jehoram, involved in the Angel's visit.