English Character Identification

Lennox and Ross

Scottish Noblemen from Macbeth

Donalbain

Duncan’s son and Malcolm’s younger brother

Porter

The drunken doorman of Macbeth’s castle

Fleance

Banquo’s son, who survives Macbeth’s attempt to murder him. At the end of the play, his whereabouts are unknown. Presumably, he may come to rule Scotland, fulfilling the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s sons will sit on the Scottish throne

Hecate

The goddess of witchcraft, who helps the three witches work their mischief on Macbeth

Malcom

The son of Duncan, whose restoration to the throne signals Scotland’s return to order following Macbeth’s reign of terror

Macduff

A Scottish nobleman hostile to Macbeth’s kingship from the start. He eventually becomes a leader of the crusade to unseat Macbeth

King Duncan

The good king of Scotland whom Macbeth, in his ambition for the crown, murders. He is the model of a virtuous, benevolent, and farsighted ruler

Banquo

The brave, noble general whose children, according to the witches’ prophecy, will inherit the Scottish throne. Like Macbeth, Banquo thinks ambitious thoughts, but he does not translate those thoughts into action

The Three Witches

Three “black and midnight hags” who plot mischief against Macbeth using charms, spells, and prophecies

Lady Macbeth

Macbeth’s wife, a deeply ambitious woman who lusts for power and position

Macbeth

a Scottish general and the thane of Glamis who is led to wicked thoughts by the prophecies of the three witches, especially after their prophecy that he will be made thane of Cawdor comes true

Heathcliff

An orphan brought to live at Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw, he falls into an intense, unbreakable love with Mr. Earnshaw’s daughter Catherine

Catherine

The daughter of Mr. Earnshaw and his wife, she falls powerfully in love with Heathcliff, the orphan Mr. Earnshaw brings home from Liverpool

Edgar Linton

Well-bred but rather spoiled as a boy, he grows into a tender, constant, but cowardly man. He is almost the ideal gentleman

Nelly Dean

serves as the chief narrator of Wuthering Heights. A sensible, intelligent, and compassionate woman, she grew up essentially alongside Hindley and Catherine Earnshaw and is deeply involved in the story she tells

Lockwood

he serves as an intermediary between Nelly and the reader. A somewhat vain and presumptuous gentleman, he deals very clumsily with the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights

Hareton Earnshaw

The son of Hindley and Frances Earnshaw, he is Catherine’s nephew. After Hindley’s death, Heathcliff assumes custody of him

Linton Heathcliff

Heathcliff’s son by Isabella. Weak, sniveling, demanding, and constantly ill, he is raised in London by his mother and does not meet his father until he is thirteen years old, when he goes to live with him after his mother’s death

Hindley Earnshaw

Catherine’s brother, and Mr. Earnshaw’s son. He resents it when Heathcliff is brought to live at Wuthering Heights. After his father dies and he inherits the estate, he begins to abuse the young Heathcliff

Isabella Linton

Edgar Linton’s sister, who falls in love with Heathcliff and marries him. She sees Heathcliff as a romantic figure, like a character in a novel. Ultimately, she ruins her life by falling in love with him

Joseph

A long-winded, fanatically religious, elderly servant at Wuthering Heights

Zillah

The housekeeper at Wuthering Heights during the latter stages of the narrative

Mr. Green

Edgar Linton’s lawyer, who arrives too late to hear Edgar’s final instruction to change his will, which would have prevented Heathcliff from obtaining control over Thrushcross Grange

Kurtz's Intended

Kurtz’s naive and long-suffering fiancée, whom Marlow goes to visit after Kurtz’s death. Her unshakable certainty about Kurtz’s love for her reinforces Marlow’s belief that women live in a dream world, well insulated from reality

Kurtz

The chief of the Inner Station and the object of Marlow’s quest. He is a man of many talents—we learn, among other things, that he is a gifted musician and a fine painter—the chief of which are his charisma and his ability to lead men

Marlow

The protagonist of Heart of Darkness. He is philosophical, independent-minded, and generally skeptical of those around him. He is also a master storyteller, eloquent and able to draw his listeners into his tale

Fresleven

Marlow’s predecessor as captain of the steamer. He, by all accounts a good-tempered, nonviolent man, was killed in a dispute over some hens, apparently after striking a village chief

Sir Thomas More

The protagonist of the play. His historical refusal to swear to Parliament’s Act of Supremacy is the play’s main subject, but Bolt intentionally does not depict him as the saint or martyr of legend

The Common Man

He sporadically narrates the play, and he plays the roles of most of the lower-class characters

Richard Rich

A low-level functionary whom More helped establish. He seeks to gain employment, but More denies him a high-ranking position and suggests that he become a teacher

Duke of Norfolk

More’s close friend. He is ultimately asked by Cromwell, and even encouraged by More himself, to betray his friendship with More

Alice More

More’s wife. A conflicted character, she spends most of the play questioning why her husband refuses to give in to the king’s wishes. Her attitude shifts from anger to confusion

Thomas Cromwell

A crafty lawyer who is the primary agent plotting against More. Whereas Rich and the Common Man are driven to their immoral actions (conspiracy, execution, and so on) somewhat reluctantly at times, he is motivated more by an evil nature

Cardinal Wolsey

The Lord Chancellor of England, who dies suddenly following his inability to obtain a dispensation from the pope that would annul King Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon and permit him to marry Anne Boleyn

Chapuys

The Spanish ambassador to England. He is loyal to his country and intent on assuring that the divorce between King Henry and Catherine, which would dishonor Catherine, does not go through

William Roper

An overzealous young man who is a staunch Lutheran at the beginning of the play and later converts to Catholicism.
He is also Margaret’s boyfriend and, after he converts to Catholicism, her husband

Margaret Roper

More’s well-educated and inquisitive daughter.She shows that she understands her father perhaps better than anyone else in the play

King Henry VIII

The king of England, who only briefly appears onstage but is a constant presence in the speech and the thoughts of the other characters. It is very important to him that others think of him as a moral person

Belcher

He is a big Englishman who is held prisoner by Irish rebels. He is a polite, quiet fellow, who helps the old woman do her chores

Bonaparte

He is the narrator of the tale. His relationship with his prisoners, Hawkins and Belcher, grows from captor-captive into actual friendship

Jeremiah Donavan

He was the soldiers supervisor and remained aloof to the Englishmen.

Hawkins

One of the Englishman held captive. He was a talker and a debater.

Noble

The other Irish guard. He too befriends the prisoners and doesn't want to kill them.

Araby

The amorous boy who devotes himself to his neighbor Mangan’s sister. Images and thoughts of the girl subsume the narrator’s days, but when he finally speaks to her it is brief and awkward

Gabriel Conroy

The protagonist from “The Dead.” A university-educated teacher and writer, he struggles with simple social situations and conversations, and straightforward questions catch him off guard