Howards End characters

Appears from the start

The elder Schlegel sister, thoughtful, composed, and deeply interested in people, art, and the responsibilities created by wealth. She shares a lively London home with Helen and Tibby and often steadies Helen's more impulsive judgments. Her sympathy is practical as well as intellectual, and she tries to understand the business-minded Wilcoxes even when their values conflict with her own.

Appears from the start

Margaret's younger sister, an energetic and idealistic young woman whose letters from Howards End open the novel. She responds to people and ideas with great intensity and has briefly fallen in love with Paul Wilcox before either family has understood what happened.

Appears from the start

The younger brother of Margaret and Helen. Intellectually inclined, dry, and often detached from the sisters' enthusiasms, he belongs to the affectionate but argumentative household at Wickham Place.

Appears from the start

The younger Wilcox son, preparing to leave England for work abroad. Helen's sudden belief that they are in love produces an apparent engagement that collapses almost immediately, exposing the gulf between the Schlegel and Wilcox families.

First appears in chapter 2

Margaret, Helen, and Tibby's well-meaning aunt. Conventional, protective, and easily flustered, she is sent to Howards End when the family thinks Helen has become engaged, only to make the misunderstanding more public on her journey.

First appears in chapter 2

The elder Wilcox son, confident in his family's judgment and intensely protective of its reputation. On the train to Howards End he mistakes Aunt Juley for one of the Schlegel sisters, and their argument over Helen and Paul quickly becomes hostile.

First appears in chapter 3

The prosperous head of the Wilcox family, experienced in business and confident that property, work, and imperial commerce matter more than abstract discussion. He is courteous but emotionally guarded, and he treats the confusion over Helen and Paul as a practical problem to be closed.

First appears in chapter 3

Henry's quiet, observant wife and the person most closely attached to Howards End, the country house she inherited through her own family. Often overshadowed by her husband and children, she feels the life and continuity of places keenly and finds Margaret more receptive to that feeling than her own family is.

First appears in chapter 3

Henry and Ruth's daughter, a sociable young woman whose interests and assumptions place her firmly within the practical, prosperous Wilcox family.

First appears in chapter 5

A poorly paid clerk with strong aspirations toward literature, music, and a more expansive life. He attends a Beethoven concert where the Schlegel party accidentally carries off his umbrella. Proud and anxious about money, he is both attracted to their cultured world and uncomfortable with the social distance between them.

First appears in chapter 6

The older woman who shares Leonard's modest home. Her presence and questions show how constrained his private circumstances are, though the exact history of their relationship is initially left unclear.

First appears in chapter 15

Charles Wilcox's wife, a brisk and conventional member of the Wilcox circle. She has a taste for family gossip and speaks with the assurance of someone who sees the Wilcox view as plainly correct.

First appears in chapter 35

An elderly local woman connected with Howards End and with the late Ruth Wilcox. Independent and shrewd, she treats the house as a living inheritance rather than merely a piece of Wilcox property.