# There Is Confusion — Character guide

> Key figures in There Is Confusion by Jessie Redmon Fauset.

- [Joanna Marshall](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/joanna_marshall.md): Joanna Marshall grows up in Philadelphia convinced that greatness is simply a matter of choosing it, and her voice seems to prove her right. Her single-mindedness wins her teachers, stages, and a suitor named Peter Bye —
- [Maggie Ellersley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/maggie_ellersley.md): Maggie Ellersley claws her way out of a bleak boardinghouse into the orbit of the prosperous Marshall family, where she copies Sylvia's hair, manners, and dresses with a determination that is part admiration, part strate
- [Peter Bye](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/peter_bye.md): Peter Bye carries the manners of a distinguished family and none of its money, a combination that makes him both charming and quick to take offense. His courtship of Joanna is shadowed by an old wound: the Bye name conce
- [Philip Marshall](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/philip_marshall.md): Philip Marshall belongs to the household that shaped Joanna — a working family with a caterer father who once dreamed of greatness himself. Practical and unshowy, he moves through the novel as a stabilizing presence, doi
- [Meriwether Bye](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/meriwether_bye.md): Dr. Meriwether Bye is the Bye who made good: educated, respected, and determined that his own son will be more than old Isaiah ever dreamed. He carries the family's unspoken ledger — the wealth built on Joshua Bye's labo
- [Sylvia Marshall](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/sylvia_marshall.md): Sylvia Marshall is everything Joanna is not: spontaneous, socially gifted, and allergic to seriousness, with a genius for ribbons, lace, and the small economies that keep a household stylish. As girls the sisters clash —
- [Joel Marshall](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/joel_marshall.md): Joel is the Marshall family's dignified patriarch, a man whose skill at feeding bank presidents and presidents has never quite satisfied the ambition kindled in him as a boy. He adores his daughter Joanna because she ech
- [Henderson Neal](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/henderson_neal.md): Neal enters Maggie's orbit as an attentive suitor, arriving in a fine automobile and speaking of London, Paris, and a life spent in service to a wealthy white employer. He reads Maggie's thoughts too easily, a habit that
- [Isaiah Bye](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/isaiah_bye.md): Isaiah is the Bye family's founding striver, a man whose mother's warning that he could not go as far as he dreamed only sharpened his resolve. He names his son Meriwether after the white Bye heir, wagers everything on t
- [Alexander Harley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/alexander_harley.md): Harley moves through the novel's social world with an easy confidence that draws attention wherever he goes, and his fortunes become entangled with Joanna's romantic choices. He is the kind of man whose illnesses hit har
- [Brian Spencer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/brian_spencer.md): A friend of the Marshall family, a kind and dependable young man.
- [Thomas Mason](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/thomas_mason.md): A working-class friend of Peter's, loyal but struggling with his own circumstances.
- [Vera Manning](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/vera_manning.md): A friend of Joanna's from the artistic community, sophisticated and worldly.
- [Harry Portor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/harry_portor.md): A young man from a prominent family, briefly involved in the social circle.
- [Susan Graves](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/susan_graves.md): A kind older woman who boards with the Marshall family and offers wisdom.
- [Vera Sharples](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/vera_sharples.md): A gossipy and opinionated neighbor who comments on local affairs.
- [Joshua Bye](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/joshua_bye.md): An elderly Black servant of the Bye family, a link to their Southern past.
- [Aaron Bye](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/aaron_bye.md): Another member of the Bye family, a quiet and hardworking relative.
- [John Howe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/john_howe.md): A businessman and acquaintance of the Marshall family.
- [Mrs. Ellersley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/mrs_ellersley.md): Maggie's mother, a kind and anxious woman concerned for her daughter.
- [Bertully](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/bertully.md): A French music teacher who instructs Joanna in singing.
- [Miss Shanley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/miss_shanley.md): A spinster who boards with the Marshall family, often pitied.
- [Alice Talbert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/alice_talbert.md): A young woman from Philadelphia who visits the boarding house.
- [Helena Arnold](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/helena_arnold.md): A friend of Vera Manning, part of the artistic set.
- [Susan Bye](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/miss_susan_bye.md): A female relative of the Bye family, a spinster.
- [Belle Bye](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/belle_bye.md): A female relative of the Bye family, married into another family.
- [Ed Morgan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/ed_morgan.md): A young man who works with Thomas Mason.
- [Mr. Hale](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/mr_hale.md): A minister who interacts with the Marshall family.
- [Alice Graves](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/alice_graves.md): A relative of Susan Graves, briefly mentioned.
- [Mrs. Terry](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/there_is_confusion_se/characters/mrs_terry.md): A neighbor of the Marshall family, briefly mentioned.

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