Howards End characters

Appears from the start

The older Schlegel sister, an intelligent and composed woman living in London on a comfortable inheritance. She values art, discussion, friendship, and personal connection, but also has the practical judgment that her more impulsive sister sometimes lacks. Her curiosity about the Wilcoxes gradually draws her into a family whose outlook is very different from her own.

Appears from the start

Margaret's younger sister, passionate, generous, and quick to act on her feelings. While staying with the Wilcox family at Howards End, she mistakes an intense attraction to Paul for a lasting engagement, beginning the uneasy connection between the two families.

Appears from the start

The younger Wilcox son, preparing to leave England for work in Nigeria. During Helen's visit to Howards End, the two briefly believe themselves in love and announce an engagement that almost immediately collapses.

First appears in chapter 2

The Schlegel sisters' aunt, protective of their respectability and alarmed by Helen's sudden engagement. She travels to Howards End intending to investigate and becomes entangled in an embarrassing misunderstanding before the families have properly met.

First appears in chapter 3

The practical, prosperous head of the Wilcox family, whose business interests and faith in property, work, and imperial commerce leave little room for the Schlegels' abstract ideals. He is confident in public affairs and accustomed to having his judgments accepted.

First appears in chapter 3

Henry and Ruth Wilcox's elder son, energetic, conventional, and fiercely protective of the family's interests. He distrusts the Schlegels and interprets challenges to his father's authority as attacks on the family itself.

Also known as Mrs Wilcox

First appears in chapter 3

Henry Wilcox's quiet first wife and the person most deeply attached to Howards End, the country house she inherited through her own family. Her calm manner and intuitive sense of place fascinate Margaret, with whom she forms an unexpected friendship.

First appears in chapter 3

Henry and Ruth's daughter, a cheerful young woman immersed in the Wilcoxes' active social world. She shares her family's assumptions and later becomes the occasion for a large country wedding.

First appears in chapter 5

A poorly paid insurance clerk who attends a Beethoven concert near the Schlegels. Earnest and self-conscious, he pursues books and music as a path toward a richer life, despite having little money or leisure and feeling out of place among the comfortably educated.

First appears in chapter 5

Margaret and Helen's younger brother, an Oxford student whose dry reserve contrasts with his sisters' emotional engagement with other people. He participates in the family's intellectual life but generally keeps its complications at a distance.

Also known as Mrs Bast

First appears in chapter 6

Leonard Bast's older companion and wife, whose loud manner and shabby appearance embarrass him. She is suspicious of his contact with the Schlegels and carries knowledge of a past that will later connect the households.

Also known as Dolly

First appears in chapter 10

Charles Wilcox's wife, sociable and talkative, with a habit of repeating family information without recognizing its importance. She is firmly situated within the Wilcox circle and its conventional view of events.

First appears in chapter 33

An elderly local woman near Howards End who remembers the house's earlier life and treats it as a place with claims beyond legal ownership. Her unexpected recognition of Margaret strengthens the sense that Margaret belongs there.