G-L Charles Dickens Characters
Bleak House, Hard Times, Old Curiosity Shop, Our Mutual Friend
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) created numerous memorable characters. Some characters were socially significant, others simply amusing, but each emerges larger than life from the pages of Dickens’ fictional volumes.
His characters often reveal something about the author, his literary style, the society of his era, or human nature in general. Many of the character names are often mentioned, but which of these names sound familiar?
Continuing from A-F Charles Dickens Characters, have these characters from the “Dickens Dictionary” of character names from M-R populated your imagination? Do you know from which novels each originated or the literary or historical importance some acquired?
Do these characters from Dickens’ lesser read works remind you of any of his more often noted characters?
Good Tom Pinch
Tom Pinch is sometimes considered the true protagonist of The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. Although a lesser read novel of Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit is filled with memorable characters of exaggerated personality.
Pinch is the former student of the hypocritical Mr. Pecksniff, who causes various complications through his ambition and selfishness. By contrast, Pinch is selfless, loyal, honest, kind, and genuine. In love with the sweet-natured Mary Graham, who is already promised to Young Martin Chuzzlewit, Pinch acts as her only trusted friend and protector during prolonged separation from her intended.
Honoria, Lady Dedlock
Introduced in Bleak House as a snobbish and standoffish woman, it is later revealed that she once possessed a very different personality. The slowly revealed events of her past play a vital role in the narrative, and she is eventually unmasked as the biological mother of the partial narrator Esther Summerson.
Icy Louisa Gradgrind Bounderby
As in Dickens’ later work, A Tale of Two Cities, which contrasts opposing characters, Hard Times For These Times, uses the character of Louisa “Loo” Gradgrind Bounderby to counter the imaginative and hopeful Cecilia “Sissy” Jupe.
Loo is a detached, emotionless, and aloof child, who has been taught to be overly practical, later, even marrying as a perfect business arrangement. Although her marriage is a disaster, she resists the temptation of adultery, and eventually learns the value of affection and feeling.
John Harmon
The presumed dead heir of a miserly merchant in Our Mutual Friend, the last novel completed by Charles Dickens, John Harmon is found to actually be using an alias. Posing as John Rokesmith, he is able to become acquainted with the finance, Bella Wilfer, intended for him in his father’s will.
Kate Nickleby
Younger sister of the title character of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Kate is considered to be typical of the kindly female characters of Charles Dickens. She is given some opportunity to show her fortitude and strength, but overall, she is simply presented as a sweet and respectable individual.
The pitiable character of Smike, crippled in both mind and body, comes to unrequitedly love Kate when he is adopted by the Nickleby family, and he is saddened by her love for another. Kate’s fondness for Smike, which continues until his death, causes her to feel badly about not returning his romantic affection for her.
Little Nell
Virtuous but lonely adolescent, Nell Trent of The Old Curiosity Shop has few companions of her own age except for Kit Nubbles, who although attempting to watch after her safety is unable to save her from her fate. Following her gambling-addicted grandfather’s loss of their livelihood, Nell and her grandfather attempt to escape ruination by leaving London.
Nell eventually contracts tuberculoses due to their harsh existence, causing her death. The name “Little Nell” has come to epitomize virtuous goodness and purity of heart.
M-R Charles Dickens Characters
Continuing with M-R Charles Dickens Characters, the protagonist of Dickens’ first novel is created, along with the infamous and eternally bridal Miss Havisham, the fallen but redeemable Nancy, and many many other well known characters…
Dickensian London
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