Decline and Fall characters

Appears from the start

A quiet, unworldly Oxford theology student whose blameless routine is destroyed when drunken members of a club strip off his trousers. The university expels him for indecency, and financial necessity sends him into schoolteaching under an assumed appearance of experience.

First appears in chapter 2

The headmaster of Llanabba Castle, a poorly run private school in Wales. He recruits Paul with little scrutiny, manages crises through bluff and optimism, and treats the school's disorder as a normal condition of business.

First appears in chapter 3

A fellow master at Llanabba with a military title, a wooden leg, and an extensive history of escaping failed careers and difficult marriages. Cheerfully adaptable, he regards almost every disaster as temporary.

First appears in chapter 4

A former clergyman teaching at Llanabba after losing his faith. Timid, melancholy, and chronically uncertain, he explains his troubles to Paul while trying to maintain order among boys who do not respect him.

First appears in chapter 4

Llanabba's enigmatic domestic servant, who offers different grand accounts of his past whenever the occasion demands. His confidence and apparent competence make the truth of his identity almost beside the point.

First appears in chapter 3

A self-possessed pupil at Llanabba and the son of the wealthy Margot Beste-Chetwynde. He quickly recognizes Paul's inexperience but treats him with friendly interest and introduces him to a more fashionable world.

Also known as Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde

First appears in chapter 7

Peter's wealthy, glamorous mother. Recently widowed and surrounded by fashionable associates, she takes an immediate interest in Paul when she visits Llanabba, whose social occasion improves markedly in her presence.

First appears in chapter 5

Dr. Fagan's daughter, who helps with the school and hopes to marry Captain Grimes. Her position requires her to treat Llanabba's recurring emergencies with a mixture of practicality and resignation.

First appears in chapter 11

A fashionable architect employed to rebuild Margot's country house, King's Thursday. His severe modern design and abstract pronouncements give physical form to the novelty and rootlessness of Margot's circle.

First appears in chapter 12

A Black American guest in Margot's social circle and a subject of excited curiosity to people around him. He is treated less as an individual than as a vehicle for their assumptions about race, culture, and fashion.

First appears in chapter 20

A senior politician whose position gives him influence over the machinery of law and punishment. His later connection with Margot makes that official power personally important to Paul's fate.