This Side of Paradise · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
Amory Blaine
major
Also known as Beatrice Amory Blaine, Beatrice Blaine, Amory, Beatrice, Blaine, Mr. Amory Blaine, Amory Blaine, Monsignor Amory, the Young Egotist Amory, Amory's, dear Amory
A handsome, egotistical Princeton romantic who inherits his mother's charm and his father's wavering, and spends his youth chasing love, status, and a self worth believing in.
Rosalind Connage
major
Also known as Rosalind, Rosalind Cecelia, Cecelia, Rosalind Coldly, Rosalind Mother, Mrs. Connage Rosalind, Rosalind Sarcastically, Rosalind Outside, Rosalind Dawson, Rosalind Amory, Alec Rosalind
A radiant, self-aware debutante who treats flirtation as a fine art and marriage as a market, and who finds in Amory the one man she cannot quite manage.
Monsignor Darcy
supporting
Also known as Darcy, Monsignor Darcy, Monsignor
A worldly Catholic priest and Amory's wisest correspondent, mixing champagne, theology, and hard truths about the romantic egotist he mentors.
Beatrice Blaine
supporting
Also known as Beatrice Amory Blaine, Beatrice
Amory's exquisite, restless mother, raised among cardinals and queens, whose cultivated contempt and fashionable boredom shape her son's taste for the extraordinary.
Isabelle Borgé
supporting
Also known as Isabelle Borgé, Isabelle
A pretty, poised young flirt from Minneapolis whose carefully staged romance with Amory teaches him more about his own vanity than about love.
Burne Holiday
supporting
Also known as Holiday, Burne, Burne Holiday, Being Burne, Good old Burne
Amory's principled, ascetic Princeton friend, whose quiet rebellion against club culture and convention becomes a mirror for Amory's own half-formed ideals.
Eleanor Savage
supporting
Also known as Eleanor, Savage, Eleanor Savage
Eleanor arrives in Amory's life like weather — impulsive, theatrical, and unimpressed by the careful poses he has learned to wear. Their romance runs on argument, verse, and shared contempt for convention, but her wildness is less freedom than a dare she keeps raising. She matters because she tests whether Amory can love a woman who refuses to be an ideal, and what he learns from her shapes how he measures every attachment after.
Clara Page
supporting
Also known as Clara Page, Clara
Clara belongs to the older, steadier world of family and Philadelphia propriety, a young widow raising children with a grace Amory finds almost unbearable. He idealizes her precisely because she is unavailable — married once, bound by duty, immune to his charm — and his longing for her becomes a rehearsal for the disappointments ahead. She matters as the standard of purity against which Amory measures Rosalind and every later romance, and as proof that the thing he wants most is the thing he cannot have.
Tom D'Invilliers
supporting
Also known as Tom DвАЩInvilliers, Tom, Tom d’Invilliers, Tommy, Thomas Parke D’Invilliers, D’Invilliers
Tom drifts through Princeton with a volume of Swinburne and a talent for puncturing the campus's self-importance, trading verses and cynicism with Amory in late-night rooms. He is more genuinely literary than Amory and less driven to be liked, which makes him both a foil and a comfort. His friendship matters because it gives Amory a mirror for his own pretensions and a companion in the aesthetic pose that will define his youth.
Alec Connage
supporting
Also known as Alec, Alexander Pope, Pope, Mrs. Connage, Mrs. Connage Alec, Emerges Mrs. Connage, Alec Thoughtfully, Alec Why, Alec Yeah, Mrs. Connage Sarcastically
Alec moves easily between the Princeton set and the Long Island world of the Connages, drinking, joking, and never quite settling into anything. His loyalty to Amory is real but loose, and his own appetites — for drink, for trouble, for the wrong women — keep pulling him toward the edges of the story. He matters because he is the door through which Amory enters Rosalind's orbit, and because his carelessness foreshadows how fragile the whole glittering circle really is.
Fred Sloane
minor
Also known as Sloane, Fred Sloane, Fred
A wealthy and carefree Princeton classmate of Amory.
Myra St. Claire
minor
Also known as Miss Myra St. Claire, Miss St. Claire, Myra, Miss Myra
A young woman Amory briefly courts in his youth.
Howard Gillespie
minor
Also known as Mr. Gillespie, Gillespie, Rosalind Mr. Gillespie, Gillespie Desperately, Howard Gillespie, Howard, Gillespie Helplessly
A wealthy suitor for Rosalind, representing old money and stability.
Kerry Holiday
minor
Also known as Kerry, Kerry Holiday, Holiday, this Kerry, Kerry
Burne Holiday's brother, a fellow Princeton student.
Dawson Ryder
minor
Also known as Dawson Ryder, Mr. Ryder, Enter Dawson Ryder, Ryder, Dawson, Ryder Startled, Mr. J. Dawson Ryder
A wealthy suitor who eventually marries Rosalind.
Dick Humbird
minor
Also known as Humbird, Dick Humbird, the quiet Humbird, Dick
A popular and tragic Princeton classmate of Amory.
Phyllis Styles
minor
Also known as Phyllis Styles, Phyllis, The blithesome Phyllis
A flirtatious young woman at a party Amory attends.
Sally Weatherby
minor
Also known as Sally Weatherby, Sally
A friend of Rosalind's and part of her social circle.
Froggy Parker
minor
Also known as Froggy Parker, Froggy, Frog Parker
A childhood friend of Amory from Minneapolis.
Jesse Ferrenby
minor
Also known as Jesse Ferrenby, Ferrenby, Jesse
A Princeton classmate and friend of Amory.
Stephen Blaine
minor
Also known as Stephen Blaine, Stephen
Amory's father, a distant and ineffectual figure.
Carling
minor
Also known as Carling
A Princeton classmate of Amory.
Count Del Monte
minor
Also known as Count Del Monte, The Count Del Monte, Poor little Count, Count
A minor European nobleman encountered by Amory.
Rahill
minor
Also known as Rahill
A Princeton classmate and friend of Amory.
Jill
minor
Also known as Jill
A young woman Amory meets during his post-war travels.
Mrs. Lawrence
minor
Also known as a Mrs. Lawrence, Mrs. Lawrence
A woman Amory meets during his time in New York.
Cecelia Connage
minor
Also known as Cecelia Money, Cecelia, Cecelia Connage
Rosalind's younger sister, a minor presence in the family.
Ted Converse
minor
Also known as Ted Converse
A Princeton classmate of Amory.
Slim Langueduc
minor
Also known as Langueduc, вАЬSlimвАЭ Langueduc
A Princeton classmate known for his tall, thin frame.
Margaret Diamond
minor
Also known as Margaret Diamond
A young woman Amory briefly dates.
Phoebe Column
minor
Also known as Phoebe Column, Phoebe
A minor character in Amory's social circle.
Marty Kaye
minor
Also known as Marty Kaye, Kaye
A friend Amory meets during his time in New York.
Mr. Barlow
minor
Also known as Barlow, Mr. Barlow
A Princeton faculty member or administrator.
Thornton Hancock
minor
Also known as the Honorable Thornton Hancock, Thornton Hancock, old Thornton Hancock
A distinguished older relative of Amory's family.
Axia Marlowe
minor
Also known as Axia Marlowe, Axia
A glamorous and worldly woman Amory meets.
Paskert
minor
Also known as young Paskert, Paskert
A Princeton classmate of Amory.
Mr. Reardon
minor
Also known as Mr. Reardon
A minor acquaintance from Amory's New York period.
Marylyn De Witt
minor
Also known as Marylyn, Marylyn De Witt—she
A young woman Amory briefly knows.
Findle Margotson
minor
Also known as Findle Margotson, Findle
A Princeton classmate of Amory.
Sarah Murphy
minor
Also known as Sarah Murphy, Sarah
A minor character in Amory's social circle.
Clara Shanafelt
minor
Also known as Clara Shanafelt, Clara
A minor acquaintance of Amory.
