Character guide

Amelia Sedley

major

Also known as Miss Sedley, Miss Amelia Sedley, Emmy, Mrs. George Osborne, poor Amelia

Amelia is the sheltered, sweet-tempered daughter of a wealthy Russell Square family, whose devotion to the handsome George Osborne defines her youth. Her flaw is not coldness but excess of feeling: she mistakes vanity for gallantry and worships a man who condescends to be adored. Her quiet constancy sets the moral counterweight to Becky's ambition, and her fortunes — courtship, marriage, and the reversals that follow — form the emotional spine of the early and middle chapters.

Becky Sharp

major

Also known as Rebecca Sharp, Mrs. Rebecca Crawley, Miss Sharp, Becky, Mrs. Rawdon Crawley

Becky enters the novel as Amelia's clever, impoverished schoolfellow, already calculating how to secure a husband and a fortune. She refuses Sir Pitt Crawley's proposal not from modesty but from strategy, and her talent for performance — tears, gratitude, humility — masks a ruthless self-interest. Her rise through the Crawley family and fashionable London makes her the book's engine of satire, exposing how rank and virtue are often merely good acting.

George Osborne

major

Also known as Mr. Osborne, George, Captain Osborne, young Osborne

George is the glittering prize of Amelia's girlhood, a lieutenant whose diamond shirt-pin and easy graces convince her she loves a hero. In truth he is selfish and shallow, more in love with his own image than with her, and his friendship with Dobbin reveals a man who takes loyalty for granted. His courtship and marriage against his father's wishes set the plot's central conflict between romantic feeling and mercenary family ambition.

William Dobbin

major

Also known as Captain Dobbin, Major Dobbin, Dobbin, honest Dobbin, Major William Dobbin

Dobbin is the schoolboy who took a beating for a smaller child and grew into the officer who defends the helpless without expecting reward. He loves Amelia silently, watching her lavish affection on the unworthy George, and his loyalty to both is tested by his own unspoken desire. His steady decency — mocked as dullness by a world that prizes flash — gives the story its moral ballast and its most patient, painful love.

Joseph Sedley

supporting

Also known as Joseph, Mr. Sedley, Joe, Jos, old Sedley

Joseph returns from Boggley Wollah a wealthy, liver-afflicted nabob who fancies himself a man about town and relishes telling his Indian stories. Vain, easily flattered, and timid before women, he becomes the first target of Becky's matrimonial ambitions during her visit to Russell Square. His comic vulnerability — the family's fear that 'the first woman who fishes for him, hooks him' — makes him a recurring pawn in the novel's marriage market.

Rawdon Crawley

supporting

Also known as Rawdon Crawley, Captain Rawdon, Colonel Crawley, the Colonel

Rawdon is the Life Guards captain whose prospects rest on his wealthy aunt Miss Crawley's favor, and whose contempt for his pious brother Pitt is matched only by his fondness for gambling and horses. Brave in the field but helpless in matters of money and intrigue, he becomes entangled with Becky Sharp, whose cleverness both captivates and manages him. His slow discovery of how little he understands his own marriage drives one of the novel's sharpest studies of honor and betrayal.

Sir Pitt Crawley

supporting

Also known as Sir Pitt, Pitt Crawley, old Sir Pitt, Honest Sir Pitt

Sir Pitt rules his Hampshire estate with drink, blows, and cheerful indifference to anyone's good opinion, marrying a tradesman's pretty daughter and letting her fade into a household machine. His proposal to the governess Rebecca Sharp—and her refusal of a baronet with four thousand a year—becomes one of the novel's great comic mysteries. He anchors the Crawley family's grubby provincial branch, showing what Becky is willing to flatter and what she is shrewd enough to decline.

Miss Crawley

supporting

Also known as Old Miss Crawley, Miss Crawley, the rich Miss Crawley

Miss Crawley holds the family purse strings and the family's attention, reading Pigault-Lebrun while nephews and in-laws orbit her for inheritance. When Sir Pitt proposes to Rebecca and is refused, she is more bewildered than any novel's intrigue could make her—proof that real vanity outpaces fiction. Her favor is the prize that draws Rawdon and Becky into high society, and her whims decide who rises and who is cut off.

Mr. Osborne

supporting

Also known as old Osborne, Mr. Osborne of Russell Square, the elder Osborne

Old Osborne rules his household with the same imperious temper he brings to Lombard Street, growing more violent and moody as his daughter Jane withers beside him. He buries George's faults and remembers only the son he lost, while coveting the little grandson kept from him in a Brompton cottage. His pride and money make him the novel's clearest portrait of respectable cruelty—and the engine of Amelia's early widowhood.

Lady Jane Crawley

supporting

Also known as Lady Jane, Jane, Lady Jane Sheepshanks, the gentle Lady Jane

Lady Jane enters the Crawley family as a softening presence amid its greed and coldness, offering affection where the household deals only in advantage. Her warmth toward young Rawdon gives the boy the maternal care his own parents never provide, and her decency quietly exposes the moral shabbiness around her. In a novel crowded with self-seekers, she matters as one of the few characters whose goodness is neither performed nor priced.

Pitt Crawley

supporting

Also known as Mr. Pitt, Mr. Crawley, Pitt Crawley, Young Pitt

Pitt Crawley returns from Christchurch so fastidious he would starve rather than dine without a white neckcloth, and so proper he lectures servants over a missing tray. He stands in awe-inspiring contrast to his father's coarseness, yet shares the family's appetite for advancement—blushing when Becky dangles a peerage before him. As the respectable face of the Crawley name, he becomes the moral and social foil against which Becky's schemes are measured.

Lord Steyne

supporting

Also known as Steyne, the Marquis of Steyne, old Steyne

Lord Steyne is the great peer whose partiality Becky cultivates with perfect frankness, turning his attachment into appointments, introductions, and hope of a peerage for Pitt. He moves through Vanity Fair as its most cynical insider, generous with influence and contemptuous of the people he elevates. His patronage is the summit of Becky's ascent—and the fault line along which her marriage and reputation will eventually crack.

Mrs. Sedley

supporting

Also known as honest Mrs. Sedley, good Mrs. Sedley, Mrs. Sedley

Amelia's doting mother, whose kind heart has already arranged a score of little schemes for her daughter's marriage and settlement.

John Sedley

supporting

Also known as old John Sedley, Mr. Sedley, Good old John Sedley

A once-prosperous London merchant whose comfortable world of turtle dinners and champagne collapses into ruin, embittering the family he adored.

Bute Crawley

supporting

Also known as Mrs. Bute Crawley, Bute, the Reverend Bute Crawley

Sir Pitt's clergyman brother, whose living and dignity depend on the family fortunes he can neither command nor escape.

Mrs. Bute Crawley

supporting

Also known as Even Mrs. Bute Crawley, the amiable Mrs. Bute Crawley, the triumphant Mrs. Bute

The rector's ambitious wife, who maneuvers relentlessly to secure Miss Crawley's fortune for her own branch of the family.

Miss Briggs

supporting

Also known as poor Briggs, Briggs, honest Miss Briggs, the gentle Briggs

Miss Crawley's gentle, tearful companion, still cherishing a lock of yellow hair from a writing-master twenty-four years dead.

Georgy Osborne

supporting

Also known as little Georgy, Georgy, Master Georgy, George Sedley Osborne

Amelia's cherished little son, whose copybooks and drawings she displays like miracles to make old Mr. Osborne repent his cruelty.

James Crawley

minor

Also known as Jim, James, Mr. James Crawley, young James

Younger son of Bute Crawley, a good-natured but reckless young man who disappoints his family.

Lady Southdown

minor

Also known as the strong-minded Lady Southdown, old Southdown, my Lady Southdown

Pious, domineering mother of Lady Jane who meddles in the Crawley household.

Major O'Dowd

minor

Also known as O'Dowd, Major O'Dowd, Sir Michael O'Dowd, Mick

Brave Irish army officer who commands the regiment, loyal friend to Dobbin and Amelia.

Mrs. O'Dowd

minor

Also known as Mrs. Major O'Dowd, Peggy, the excellent Mrs. O'Dowd

Major O'Dowd's formidable, talkative Irish wife who mothers the young officers.

Miss Swartz

minor

Also known as Swartz, honest Swartz, the impetuous and woolly-headed Miss Swartz

Wealthy, kind-hearted heiress of mixed race, courted by George Osborne for her money.

Miss Osborne

minor

Also known as Miss Jane Osborne, Jane, old Jane, Dear Miss Osborne

George's spinster sister who lives with their father and later befriends Amelia.

Maria Osborne

minor

Also known as Miss Maria, Maria, Polly, lovely Polly

George's younger sister who marries Frederick Bullock against her father's wishes.

Frederick Bullock

minor

Also known as Mr. Bullock, Frederick, Frederick Augustus, young Bullock

Wealthy merchant who marries Maria Osborne for her dowry, later regrets the match.

Miss Pinkerton

minor

Also known as the orthodox Miss Pinkerton, Miss Jemima Pinkerton, Jemima

Headmistress of Chiswick Mall academy where Amelia and Becky were educated.

Miss Jemima Pinkerton

minor

Also known as sister Jemima, Jemima, poor Jemima

Miss Pinkerton's kind but timid younger sister who helps run the school.

Glorvina O'Dowd

minor

Also known as Miss Glorvina O'Dowd, Miss O'Dowd, that Miss O'Dowd

Major O'Dowd's sister, a flirtatious Irish beauty who sets her cap at Dobbin.

Rawdon Minor

minor

Also known as little Rawdon, Rawdy, Rawdon Crawley the younger

Becky and Rawdon's son, neglected by his mother but loved by his father and Lady Jane.

Lady Bareacres

minor

Also known as the Lady Bareacres, Bareacres, the frigid old Bareacres

Proud, cold-hearted aristocrat who snubs Becky but later needs her help in Brussels.

Lord Bareacres

minor

Also known as Bareacres, George Earl of Bareacres, the Earl of Bareacres

Aristocratic husband of Lady Bareacres, a gambler and debtor in high society.

Wenham

minor

Also known as Mr. Wenham

Lord Steyne's sly, manipulative secretary who helps manage the marquis's affairs.

Firkin

minor

Also known as Mrs. Firkin, even Firkin

Miss Crawley's loyal, gossipy maid who reports on household intrigues.

Betsy Horrocks

minor

Also known as Miss Horrocks, Horrocks, Betsy, Elizabeth

Sir Pitt's maid who becomes his second wife after Lady Crawley's death.

Raggles

minor

Also known as Mr. Raggles, poor Raggles, old Raggles, honest Raggles

Former butler to Miss Crawley who rents his house to Becky and Rawdon.

Lady Steyne

minor

Also known as my Lady Steyne, the Lady Steyne

Lord Steyne's pious, long-suffering wife who endures his infidelities in silence.

Lord Gaunt

minor

Also known as Lord George Gaunt, George Gaunt, Master George Gaunt

Lord Steyne's eldest son, a dissolute nobleman who dies young.

Lady Gaunt

minor

Also known as the Lady Gaunt, Gaunt

Lord Gaunt's wife, a cold, proud aristocrat who snubs Becky in society.

Mary Clapp

minor

Also known as little Mary Clapp, Miss Clapp, Molly, Polly

The Clapps' daughter, a kind friend to Amelia during her years of poverty.

General Tufto

minor

Also known as Sir George Tufto, George, the present Sir George Tufto

A vain, elderly general who commands the regiment and flirts with Becky.

Ensign Stubble

minor

Also known as Stubble, little Stubble, Tom Stubble

A young, enthusiastic ensign in the regiment who dies at Waterloo.

Isidor

minor

Also known as Monsieur Isidor

Joseph Sedley's French valet who helps him flee Brussels during the Waterloo panic.

Lady Blanche Thistlewood

minor

Also known as Lady Blanche, Blanche, the Lady Blanche Thistlewood

A fashionable society lady who appears in the charade scene at Gaunt House.

Mrs. Blenkinsop

minor

Also known as Blenkinsop, Honest old Mrs. Blenkinsop

The Sedley family's housekeeper, a loyal servant through their changing fortunes.

Mr. Eaves

minor

Also known as Eaves, this sardonic old Eaves

A gossipy old man who knows everyone's secrets in London society.

Tom Eaves

minor

Also known as little Tom Eaves, Tom

A minor character in the novel's social scenes, possibly related to Mr. Eaves.

Miss Wirt

minor

Also known as the elegant Miss Wirt

A governess in the Crawley household, a minor character.

Mr. Cuff

minor

Also known as Cuff, Mr. Reginald Cuff

School bully at Dr. Swishtail's academy who torments Dobbin and later becomes a soldier.

Peggy O'Dowd

minor

Also known as Peggy, old O'Dowd, that odious Peggy Malony

Major O'Dowd's formidable mother who disapproves of his marriage and military life.

Bowls

minor

Also known as Mr. Bowls

Miss Crawley's butler, a dignified servant who witnesses the family's scheming.

Sambo

minor

Also known as Mr. Sambo, black Sambo, honest Sambo

The Sedley family's loyal black servant who serves them through prosperity and ruin.

Captain Macmurdo

minor

Also known as Macmurdo, Mr. Macmurdo, comrade Captain Macmurdo

Rawdon's friend and second in his duel with Lord Steyne, a bluff army officer.

Mr. Wagg

minor

Also known as Wagg

A fashionable novelist and wit who appears in high society circles.

Mrs. Clapp

minor

Also known as Clapp

The Clapps' mother, a humble woman who rents rooms to the Sedley family in poverty.

Mr. Clapp

minor

Also known as Old Mr. Clapp

The Clapp family patriarch who rents his house to the Sedleys.

Ensign Spooney

minor

Also known as Spooney

A young, foolish ensign in the regiment, friend of Stubble.

Kirsch

minor

Also known as Mr. Kirsch, the bustling Mr. Kirsch

Joseph Sedley's German valet who serves him in later years.

Mrs. Tinker

minor

Also known as Tinker, old Tinker

Sir Pitt Crawley's housekeeper at Queen's Crawley.

Mr. Horrocks

minor

Also known as Horrocks

Sir Pitt's butler at Queen's Crawley, father of Betsy Horrocks.

Mr. Moss

minor

Also known as Moss, Mr. Moses, Moses

A Jewish moneylender and sheriff's officer who arrests Rawdon for debt.

Mr. Chopper

minor

Also known as Chopper

Mr. Osborne's clerk and confidant who advises him on family matters.

Mr. Hammerdown

minor

An auctioneer who sells the Sedley family's possessions after their bankruptcy.

Dr. Squills

minor

Also known as Squills

A doctor who attends the Sedley and Osborne families, a practical man.

Mr. Veal

minor

Also known as the Rev. Mr. Veal, old Veal, Reverend Lawrence Veal

A clergyman who appears in the Crawley family circle.

Mrs. Veal

minor

Wife of the Reverend Veal, a minor figure in the Crawley social world.

Lady Emily Hornblower

minor

Also known as Lady Emily, poor Emmy, Emily, the Right Honourable the Lady Emily Hornblower

A minor aristocratic figure mentioned in the Crawley family's social circle.

Lord Southdown

minor

Also known as young Lord Southdown, Little Lord Southdown, Southdown

Lady Southdown's son, a young nobleman in the Crawley orbit.

Mademoiselle Fifine

minor

Also known as Fifine, Mademoiselle

A French maid in the Crawley household, involved in minor intrigues.

Mr. Fiche

minor

Also known as Fiche, Monsieur Fiche

Lord Steyne's confidential agent who handles delicate financial matters.

Mr. Trotter

minor

Also known as Trotter

A minor character in the novel's social scenes.

Captain Bragg

minor

Also known as Bragg

An army officer mentioned in the social circles of the regiment.

Mr. Binny

minor

Also known as the Reverend Mr. Binny

A clergyman who marries Amelia and Dobbin in the novel's later chapters.

Mr. Pestler

minor

Also known as Pestler

An apothecary who attends the Sedley family during their illnesses.

Mr. Smee

minor

Also known as Smee

A portrait painter who paints the Crawley family.

Mrs. Winkworth

minor

Also known as poor Mrs. Winkworth

A minor figure in the Sedley family's social circle.

Mr. Hodson

minor

Also known as Hodson, a Mr. Hodson

A minor character mentioned in the novel's social scenes.

Mr. Creamer

minor

Also known as Creamer

A minor character in the novel's social scenes.

Mr. Lewis

minor

A minor character mentioned in the novel's social scenes.

Mr. Brown

minor

Also known as Brown

A generic name used for minor unnamed characters in the novel.

Mrs. Brown

minor

Also known as Brown

A generic name used for minor unnamed female characters.