List of Fictional Characters by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

 List of Fictional Characters

by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

This is an alphabetically ordered list of fictional characters, including the titles of works in which they appear. See also literature; novel; fable; short story.

A

• Sir Anthony Absolute (The Rivals)
• Nick Adams (In Our Time and others)
• Parson Adams (Joseph Andrews)
• Frankie Addams (The Member of the Wedding)
• Anthony Adverse (Anthony Adverse)
• Captain Ahab (Moby Dick)
• Albertine (Remembrance of Things Past; or, In Search of Lost Time)
• Alceste (La Misanthrope)
• Algernon (The Importance of Being Earnest)
• Ali Baba (“Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” from The Thousand and One Nights)
• Squire Allworthy (Tom Jones)
• Count Almaviva (The Barber of Seville; The Marriage of Figaro)
• The Alvings (Ghosts)
• Amaryllis (“I Care Not for These Ladies”; “Lycidas”)
• Ananse (African folklore)
• Pamela Andrews (Pamela)
• Angelica (Orlando innamorato; Orlando furioso)
• Harry Angstrom (Rabbit, Run and others)
• Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus (The Skin of Our Teeth)
• Aramis (The Three Musketeers)
• Isabel Archer (The Portrait of a Lady)
• Enoch Arden (Enoch Arden)
• The Artful Dodger (Oliver Twist)
• Gustave von Aschenbach (Death in Venice)
• Lady Brett Ashley (The Sun Also Rises)
• Athos (The Three Musketeers)
• Ayesha (She)
• Dr. Aziz (A Passage to India)

B

• Baba-Yaga (Russian folklore)
• Babar (The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant and others)
• Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbitt; The Lord of the Rings)
• Frodo Baggins (The Lord of the Rings)
• Harry Bailly (The Canterbury Tales)
• David Balfour (Kidnapped)
• Mr. Barkis (David Copperfield)
• Jake Barnes (The Sun Also Rises)
• Lily Bart (The House of Mirth)
• Yevgeny Bazarov (Fathers and Sons)
• Adam Bede (Adam Bede)
• Belial (Paradise Lost)
• Bennet family (Pride and Prejudice)
• Bertram family (Mansfield Park)
• Pierre Bezukhov (War and Peace)
• Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-four)
• Big Daddy (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
• Rupert Birkin (Women in Love)
• Anthony Blanche (Brideshead Revisited)
• Leopold Bloom (Ulysses)
• Molly Bloom (Ulysses)
• Bluebeard (Tales of Mother Goose)
• Bobbsey Twins (The Bobbsey Twins series)
• William Boldwood (Far from the Madding Crowd)
• Bolkonsky family (War and Peace)
• James Bond (Casino Royale and others)
• Boojum (The Hunting of the Snark)
• The Borrowers (The Borrowers series)
• Josiah Bounderby (Hard Times)
• Emma Bovary (Madame Bovary)
• Sally Bowles (Sally Bowles; Goodbye to Berlin)
• Lady Augusta Bracknell (The Importance of Being Earnest)
• Bradamante (Orlando furioso)
• Matthew Bramble (The Expedition of Humphry Clinker)
• Colonel Brandon (Sense and Sensibility)
• Dave Brandstetter (Fadeout and others)
• Gudrun Brangwen (Women in Love)
• Ursula Brangwen (Women in Love)
• Brer Rabbit (African folklore)
• Brighella (stock character, commedia dell’arte)
• Hans Brinker (Hans Brinker)
• Lily Briscoe (To the Lighthouse)
• Dorothea Brooke (Middlemarch)
• Father Brown (The Innocence of Father Brown and others)
• Bruin (Roman de Renart)
• Tom and Daisy Buchanan (The Great Gatsby)
• Inspector Bucket (Bleak House)
• Buendía family (One Hundred Years of Solitude)
• Mr. Bumble (Oliver Twist)
• Natty Bumppo (The Leatherstocking Tales)
• Bunter (Lord Peter Wimsey series)
• Billy Bunter (“The Making of Harry Wharton” and others)
• Rhett Butler (Gone with the Wind)

C

• Camille (La Dame aux camélias)
• Don Camillo (The Little World of Don Camillo and others)
• Albert Campion (The Crime at Black Dudley and others)
• Capitano (stock character, commedia dell’arte)
• Philip Carey (Of Human Bondage)
• Nick Carraway (The Great Gatsby)
• Richard Carstone (Bleak House)
• Nick Carter (“The Old Detective’s Pupil” and others)
• Sydney Carton (A Tale of Two Cities)
• Edward Casaubon (Middlemarch)
• Hans Castorp (The Magic Mountain)
• Cathbad (Irish legend)
• Holden Caulfield (The Catcher in the Rye)
• Olive Chancellor (The Bostonians)
• Cheshire Cat (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
• Roger Chillingworth (The Scarlet Letter)
• Chingachgook (The Leatherstocking Tales)
• Mr. Chips (Goodbye, Mr. Chips)
• Anna Christie (Anna Christie)
• Martin Chuzzlewit (Martin Chuzzlewit)
• John Claggart (Billy Budd, Foretopman)
• Angel Clare (Tess of the d’Urbervilles)
• Claudine (Claudine at School and others)
• Arthur Clennam (Little Dorrit)
• Humphry Clinker (The Expedition of Humphry Clinker)
• Columbine (stock character, commedia dell’arte)
• Conan the Barbarian (Conan the Conqueror and others)
• Conlaí (Ulster cycle)
• David Copperfield (David Copperfield)
• Richard Cory (“Richard Cory”)
• Corydon (stock character)
• Mother Courage (Mother Courage and Her Children)
• Ichabod Crane (“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”)
• Cratchit family (A Christmas Carol)
• Janie Crawford (Their Eyes Were Watching God)
• Gerald Crich (Women in Love)
• Guy Crouchback (Sword of Honour)
• Robinson Crusoe (Robinson Crusoe)
• Cú Chulainn (Ulster cycle)
• Sergeant Cuff (The Moonstone)
• Cunégonde (Candide)

D

• D’Artagnan (The Three Musketeers)
• Edmond Dantès (The Count of Monte Cristo)
• Fitzwilliam Darcy (Pride and Prejudice)
• Charles Darnay (A Tale of Two Cities)
• Dashwood family (Sense and Sensibility)
• Stephen Dedalus (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; Ulysses)
• Lady Honoria Dedlock (Bleak House)
• Madame Defarge (A Tale of Two Cities)
• Deirdre (Ulster cycle)
• Jean Des Esseintes (Against the Grain)
• Mr. Dick (David Copperfield)
• Digenis Akritas (Akritic ballads)
• Arthur Dimmesdale (The Scarlet Letter)
• Dick and Nicole Diver (Tender Is the Night)
• Don Quixote (Don Quixote)
• Eliza Doolittle (Pygmalion)
• Lorna Doone (Lorna Doone)
• Dorothy (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
• Dottore (stock character, commedia dell’arte)
• Nancy Drew (The Secret of the Old Clock and others)
• Edwin Drood (The Mystery of Edwin Drood)
• Bulldog Drummond (Bull-dog Drummond: The Adventures of a Demobilized Officer Who Found Peace Dull and others)
• Blanche DuBois (A Streetcar Named Desire)
• The Duchess (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
• The Duke and the Dauphin (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
• Dulcinea (Don Quixote)
• C. Auguste Dupin (“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and others)

E

• Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker (Finnegans Wake)
• Eeyore (Winnie-the-Pooh)
• Elliot family (Persuasion)
• Lord Emsworth (Something Fresh and others)
• Enmerkar (Lugalbanda and Enmerkar and others)
• Henry Esmond (The History of Henry Esmond, Esq.)
• Till Eulenspiegel (German folklore)
• Bathsheba Everdene (Far from the Madding Crowd)

F

• Fagin (Oliver Twist)
• Lord Fauntleroy (Little Lord Fauntleroy)
• Jude Fawley (Jude the Obscure)
• Richard Feverel (The Ordeal of Richard Feverel)
• Fezziwig (A Christmas Carol)
• Flora Finching (Little Dorrit)
• Finn (Fenian cycle)
• Huckleberry Finn (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
• Jeremiah Flintwinch (Little Dorrit)
• Phileas Fogg (Around the World in Eighty Days)
• Forsyte family (The Forsyte Saga)
• Count Fosco (The Woman in White)
• Frankenstein (Frankenstein)
• Ethan Frome (Ethan Frome)
• Fu Manchu (The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu and others)

G

• Hedda Gabler (Hedda Gabler)
• Sairey Gamp (Martin Chuzzlewit)
• Gandalf (The Hobbit; The Lord of the Rings)
• Eugene Gant (Look Homeward, Angel; Of Time and the River)
• Joe Gargery (Great Expectations)
• Jay Gatsby (The Great Gatsby)
• Gellert (Welsh folklore)
• Beau Geste (Beau Geste)
• Gilgamesh (Epic of Gilgamesh)
• Glass family (Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey, and others)
• Boris Godunov (Boris Godunov)
• Golias (stock character, medieval French literature)
• Gollum (The Hobbit; The Lord of the Rings)
• Père Goriot (Le Père Goriot)
• Gradgrind (Hard Times)
• Eugénie Grandet (Eugénie Grandet)
• Emmeline Grangerford (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
• Dorian Gray (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
• Grendel (Beowulf)
• Clyde Griffiths (An American Tragedy)
• Grisette (Mimi Pinson and others)
• Titus Groan (Titus Groan trilogy)
• Mrs. Grundy (Speed the Plough)
• Guermantes family (Remembrance of Things Past; or, In Search of Lost Time)
• Martin Guerre (Remembrance of Things Past; or, In Search of Lost Time)
• Guildenstern (Hamlet)

H

• Prince Hal (Henry IV, Part I; Henry V)
• Mike Hammer (I, the Jury and others)
• Hardy Boys (The Hardy Boys series)
• Jonathan Harker (Dracula)
• Harlequin (stock character, commedia dell’arte)
• Clarissa Harlowe (Clarissa)
• Miss Havisham (Great Expectations)
• Jim Hawkins (Treasure Island)
• Asa and Sabbath Lily Hawks (Wise Blood)
• Headless horseman (“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”)
• Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights)
• Uriah Heep (David Copperfield)
• Matt Helm (Death of a Citizen and others)
• Nora Helmer (A Doll’s House)
• Michael Henchard (The Mayor of Casterbridge)
• Herne the Hunter (English folklore)
• Henry Higgins (Pygmalion)
• Fanny Hill (Fanny Hill)
• Roy Hobbs (The Natural)
• Sherlock Holmes (A Study in Scarlet and numerous other detective stories)
• Horatio Hornblower (The Happy Return and others)
• Roderick Hudson (Roderick Hudson)
• Humbert Humbert (Lolita)
• Humpty Dumpty (English nursery rhyme)
• Mr. Hyde (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)

I

• Iago (Othello)
• Ilya of Murom (Russian folklore)
• Infant Phenomenon (Nicholas Nickleby)
• Isolde (Celtic folklore)

J

• Jabberwock (“Jabberwocky”)
• Mr. Jaggers (Great Expectations)
• Jarndyce family (Bleak House)
• Dr. Jekyll (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
• Mrs. Jellyby (Bleak House)
• Jim (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
• Gulley Jimson (The Horse’s Mouth)
• Joad family (The Grapes of Wrath)
• Joseph K. (The Trial)
• Juliet (Romeo and Juliet)

K

• Karamazov brothers (The Brothers Karamazov)
• Anna Karenina (Anna Karenina)
• Katharina (The Taming of the Shrew)
• Carol Kennicott (Main Street)
• Diedrich Knickerbocker (A History of New York)
• George Knightley (Emma)
• Stanley Kowalski (A Streetcar Named Desire)
• Tonio Kröger (Tonio Kröger)
• Mr. Kurtz (Heart of Darkness)

L

• Will Ladislaw (Middlemarch)
• Lydia Languish (The Rivals)
• Silas Lapham (The Rise of Silas Lapham)
• Wolf Larsen (The Sea Wolf)
• Lazarillo de Tormes (The Life of Lazarillo of Tormes)
• Lear (King Lear)
• Simon Legree (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
• Lemminkäinen (Finnish folklore)
• Inspector Lestrade (Sherlock Holmes series)
• Konstantine Levin (Anna Karenina)
• Linton family (Wuthering Heights)
• Little Em’ly (David Copperfield)
• Little Eva (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
• Little Nell (The Old Curiosity Shop)
• Lochinvar (“Marmion”)
• Lohengrin (Parzival)
• Willy Loman (Death of a Salesman)
• Studs Lonigan (Studs Lonigan trilogy)
• Lothario (The Fair Penitent)
• Robert Lovelace (Clarissa)
• Sut Lovingood ( Sut Lovingood: Yarns Spun by a “Natural Born Durn’d Fool”)
• Lugalbanda (Lugalbanda and Enmerkar)
• Lulu (Earth Spirit; Pandora’s Box)
• Arsène Lupin (Arsène Lupin detective stories)
• Tertius Lydgate (Middlemarch)
• Barry Lyndon (Barry Lyndon)

M

• Macbeth (Macbeth)
• Lady Macbeth (Macbeth)
• Macheath (The Beggar’s Opera; The Threepenny Opera)
• Mad Hatter (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
• Madog ab Owain Gwynedd (Welsh folklore)
• Maeldúin (Irish folklore)
• Abel Magwitch (Great Expectations)
• Jules Maigret (The Case of Peter the Lett and others)
• Major Major (Catch-22)
• Malcolm (Macbeth)
• Alexander and Lucie Manette (A Tale of Two Cities)
• Marcel (Remembrance of Things Past; or, In Search of Lost Time)
• March Hare (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
• March family (Little Women)
• Augie March (The Adventures of Augie March)
• Marchmain family (Brideshead Revisited)
• Jacob Marley (A Christmas Carol)
• Philip Marlowe (The Big Sleep and others)
• Miss Marple (Murder at the Vicarage and others)
• Bertha Mason (Jane Eyre)
• Perry Mason (The Case of the Velvet Claws and others)
• Travis McGee (The Deep Blue Good-By and others)
• Wilhelm Meister (Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship)
• Oliver Mellors (Lady Chatterly’s Lover)
• Mr. Merdle (Little Dorrit)
• Wilkins Micawber (David Copperfield)
• Daisy Miller (Daisy Miller)
• Miranda (The Tempest)
• Walter Mitty (“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”)
• Mock Turtle (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
• Sara Monday (Herself Surprised)
• Moomintroll (The Moomins and the Great Flood and others)
• Hank Morgan (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court)
• Professor Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes series)
• Catherine Morland (Northanger Abbey)
• Hazel Motes (Wise Blood)
• Mr. Moto (No Hero and others)
• Mowgli (The Jungle Book)
• Mugridge (The Sea Wolf)
• Baron Munchausen (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen)
• Edward Murdstone (David Copperfield)

N

• Captain Nemo (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; The Mysterious Island)
• Nicholas Nickleby (Nicholas Nickleby)

O

• Scarlett O’Hara (Gone with the Wind)
• Gabriel Oak (Far from the Madding Crowd)
• Oberon (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
• Odette (Remembrance of Things Past; or, In Search of Lost Time)
• Duke of Omnium (Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope)
• Eugene Onegin (Eugene Onegin)
• Ophelia (Hamlet)
• Orlando (As You Like It)
• Orlando (Orlando innamorato; Orlando furioso)
• Gilbert Osmond (The Portrait of a Lady)
• Othello (Othello)

P

• Palliser family (Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope)
• Pancks (Little Dorrit)
• Pangloss (Candide)
• Pantaloon (stock character, commedia dell’arte)
• Panurge (Gargantua and Pantagruel and others)
• Peachum family (The Beggar’s Opera; The Threepenny Opera)
• Pearl (The Scarlet Letter)
• Seth Pecksniff (Martin Chuzzlewit)
• Pedrolino (stock character, commedia dell’arte)
• Peer Gynt (Peer Gynt)
• Clara Peggotty (David Copperfield)
• Peter Pan (Peter Pan)
• Petruchio (The Taming of the Shrew)
• Samuel Pickwick (The Pickwick Papers)
• Piglet (Winnie-the-Pooh)
• Billy Pilgrim (Slaughterhouse-Five)
• Pinocchio (“The Adventures of Pinocchio: The Story of a Puppet”)
• Pip (Great Expectations)
• Sir Fretful Plagiary (The Critic)
• Anna Livia Plurabelle (Finnegans Wake)
• Hercule Poirot (The Mysterious Affair at Styles and others)
• Ross Poldark (Ross Poldark and others)
• Aunt Polly (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
• Pollyanna (Pollyanna)
• Polonius (Hamlet)
• Pontifex family (The Way of All Flesh)
• Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins and others)
• Porthos (The Three Musketeers)
• Portia (The Merchant of Venice)
• Harry Potter (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and others)
• Fanny Price (Mansfield Park)
• Miss Prism (The Importance of Being Earnest)
• Prospero (The Tempest)
• J. Alfred Prufrock (“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”)
• Hester Prynne (The Scarlet Letter)
• Puck (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
• Puss in Boots (Puss in Boots)

Q

• Quasimodo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
• Allan Quatermain (King Solomon’s Mines)
• Captain Queeg (The Caine Mutiny)
• Queen of Hearts (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
• Queequeg (Moby Dick)
• Adela Quested (A Passage to India)
• Daniel Quilp (The Old Curiosity Shop)

R

• A.J. Raffles (Raffles stories by E.W. Hornung)
• Ramsay family (To the Lighthouse)
• Basil Ransom (The Bostonians)
• Rodion Raskolnikov (Crime and Punishment)
• Red Cross Knight (The Faerie Queene)
• Regan (King Lear)
• Reynard the Fox (character from medieval literature)
• Richard III (Henry VI, Part 2; Henry VI, Part 3; Richard III)
• Tom Ripley (The Talented Mr. Ripley and others)
• Howard Roark (The Fountainhead)
• Robin Hood (series of English ballads)
• Christopher Robin (Winnie-the-Pooh)
• Mr. Rochester (Jane Eyre)
• Rocinante (Don Quixote)
• Romeo (Romeo and Juliet)
• Rosalind (As You Like It)
• Rosencrantz (Hamlet)
• Rostov family (War and Peace)
• Roxane (Cyrano de Bergerac)
• Barnaby Rudge (Barnaby Rudge)
• Ruggiero (Orlando furioso)
• Marmaduke Ruggles (Ruggles of Red Gap)
• Horace Rumpole (Rumpole of the Bailey and others)
• Charles Ryder (Brideshead Revisited)

S

• The Saint (Meet the Tiger and others)
• Gregor Samsa (The Metamorphosis)
• Sancho Panza (Don Quixote)
• Tom Sawyer (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
• Scapin (stock character, commedia dell’arte)
• Scaramouche (stock character, commedia dell’arte)
• Ebenezer Scrooge (A Christmas Carol)
• Amelia Sedley (Vanity Fair)
• The Shadow (The Living Shadow and others)
• Shakuntala (The Recognition of Shakuntala)
• Becky Sharp (Vanity Fair)
• Ántonia Shimerda (My Ántonia)
• Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables)
• Shrek (Shrek! by William Steig)
• Shylock (The Merchant of Venice)
• Bill Sikes (Oliver Twist)
• Long John Silver (Treasure Island)
• Tyrone Slothrop (Gravity’s Rainbow)
• Smike (Nicholas Nickleby)
• George Smiley (Call for the Dead and others)
• Winston Smith (Nineteen Eighty-four)
• Snark (“The Hunting of the Snark”)
• Snopes family (The Hamlet and others)
• Snowball (Animal Farm)
• Lucy Snowe (Villette)
• Halvard Solness (The Master Builder)
• Hetty Sorrel (Adam Bede)
• Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon)
• Dora Spenlow (David Copperfield)
• Wackford Squeers (Nicholas Nickleby)
• Stage Manager (Our Town)
• Monroe Stahr (The Last Tycoon)
• Starbuck (Moby Dick)
• Willie Stark (All the King’s Men)
• James Steerforth (David Copperfield)
• Lambert Strether (The Ambassadors)
• Esther Summerson (Bleak House)
• Charles and Joseph Surface (The School for Scandal)
• Sutpen family (Absalom, Absalom!)
• Svengali (Trilby)
• Charles Swann (Remembrance of Things Past; or, In Search of Lost Time)

T

• Verena Tarrant (The Bostonians)
• Tarzan (Tarzan of the Apes)
• Tattycoram (Little Dorrit)
• Suky Tawdry (The Threepenny Opera)
• Lady Teazle (The School for Scandal)
• William Tell (Swiss folklore)
• Becky Thatcher (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
• Thomas Bigger (Native Son)
• Thomas the Tank Engine (The Three Railway Engines and others)
• Sadie Thompson (“Rain”)
• Christopher Tietjens (Parade’s End)
• Tinker Bell (Peter Pan)
• Titania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
• Tituba (The Crucible)
• Topsy (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
• Tristan (Celtic folklore)
• Betsey Trotwood (David Copperfield)
• Sergeant Francis Troy (Far from the Madding Crowd)
• Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
• Oliver Twist (Oliver Twist)
• Uncle Tom (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)

U

• Urizen (America, a Prophecy and others)

V

• Jean Valjean (Les Misérables)
• Valmont (Dangerous Liaisons)
• Philo Vance (The Benson Murder Case and others)
• Dolly Varden (Barnaby Rudge)
• Varner family (The Hamlet)
• Diggory Venn (The Return of the Native)
• Captain Vere (Billy Budd, Foretopman)
• Rosamond Vincy (Middlemarch)
• Viola (Twelfth Night)
• Count Aleksey Vronsky (Anna Karenina)
• Eustacia Vye (The Return of the Native)

W

• Dr. Watson (Sherlock Holmes series)
• Weird Sisters (Macbeth)
• Sam Weller (The Pickwick Papers)
• Frederick Wentworth (Persuasion)
• Werther (The Sorrows of Young Werther)
• Sophia Western (Tom Jones)
• Simon Wheeler (“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”; “Jim Wolfe and the Tom-cats”)
• White Rabbit (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
• Agnes Wickfield (David Copperfield)
• Tom Wilcher (To Be a Pilgrim)
• Damon Wildeve (The Return of the Native)
• Pudd’nhead Wilson (Pudd’nhead Wilson)
• Lord Peter Wimsey (Whose Body? and others)
• Wingfield family (The Glass Menagerie)
• Wise Men of Gotham (English legend)
• Wolfdietrich (Ortnit; Wolfdietrich)
• Nero Wolfe (Fer-de-Lance and others)
• Emma Woodhouse (Emma)
• Bertie Wooster (“Extricating Young Gussie” and others)

Y

• Clym Yeobright (The Return of the Native)
• Captain John Yossarian (Catch-22)

Z

• Zorro (“The Curse of Capistrano” and other stories by Johnston McCulley)