Characters
Primary Characters:
- Ellen Montgomery: The story's protagonist. Young and naïve at the story's beginning, Ellen lives happilly with her mother as her sole companion and teacher. After being torn away from her mother, Ellen struggles to learn to love God and live a Christian life in the face of adversity.
- Mrs. Montgomery: Ellen’s mother. Plagued with health problems, Mrs. Montgomery finds comfort only in Ellen and God. Although unable to perform many of the duties of a mother and wife, she does her best to teach Ellen about God and how to be a lady.
- Fortune Emerson: Captain Montgomery’s half-sister is stern and unfeeling towards Ellen from the beginning. She refuses to let Ellen attend school and even withholds her mother’s letter from Ellen.
- Alice Humphreys: Daughter of a minister. Kind and gentle, she becomes Ellen's companion and spiritual counselor and helps Ellen find solace in the Lord while living with Aunt Fortune. Eventually Alice becomes sick and dies, but not before teaching Ellen to learn to trust in God.
- John Humphreys: Alice’s beloved brother. A handsome and charming young man, he becomes as close as a brother to Ellen (as Alice becomes as close as a sister). After Alice's death, John becomes Ellen’s guide through the world, teaching her how to be a good Christian and a good person.
- The Lindsays: Ellen’s family on her mother’s side. Grandmother Lindsay; and Mr. Lindsay and Lady Keith, Ellen's uncle and aunt; adopt her readily into their family but become extremely possessive of her and make her denounce her identity as an American and a Montgomery. They also discourage Ellen's devotion to her faith.
Secondary Characters
- Captain Montgomery: Ellen's negligent father was often away from home and felt little sympathy for wife or daughter during their forced separation.
- Mr. Van Brunt: Fortune’s farmhand. He is intimidating at first, though Ellen learns to love him. He feels kindly towards Ellen, often defending her when her aunt mistreats her.
- Nancy Vawse: A girl who lives nearby with her grandmother, she is thought by most to be "a bad sort"; though Ellen doesn't like her at first, she proves later to be a better person.
- Mrs. Vawse: Nancy’s grandmother, a kindly old lady who lives on a mountain. She teaches French to Ellen and Alice and later cares for Ellen after Alice dies and John returns to school.
- Mr. Humphreys: Alice and John’s father, a local minister. He is a quiet man who keeps to himself, though Ellen becomes like a daughter to him and comforts him after Alice dies.
- The Marshmans: Humphreys-family friends who live in a nearby town. They are kind to Ellen and treat her well when she is with them.
- Ellen Chauncey: A young girl Ellen meets while staying with the Marshmans.
- Margery: Alice’s loyal servant who came from England with the Humphreys. She helps Ellen learn to take Alice's place in the household.
Read more about this topic: The Wide, Wide World
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I cannot be much pleased without an appearance of truth; at least of possibility—I wish the history to be natural though the sentiments are refined; and the characters to be probable, though their behaviour is excelling.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)
“I make it a kind of pious rule to go to every funeral to which I am invited, both as I wish to pay a proper respect to the dead, unless their characters have been bad, and as I would wish to have the funeral of my own near relations or of myself well attended.”
—James Boswell (1740–1795)