Nutcracker and Mouse-King characters

Appears from the start

The seven-year-old daughter of the Stahlbaum family, imaginative and compassionate toward things others dismiss as ugly or broken. On Christmas Eve she becomes especially attached to the wooden Nutcracker among the children's gifts.

Appears from the start

Marie's older brother, eager for toy soldiers and military games. He treats the Christmas toys more roughly than Marie and doubts her account of the strange events that follow.

Also known as Godfather Drosselmeier

Appears from the start

Marie's ingenious but unsettling godfather, a senior court councillor who repairs clocks and constructs elaborate mechanical gifts. His stories and knowing manner suggest that he understands more about the Nutcracker than he initially explains.

First appears in chapter 2

A wooden figure made to crack nuts with his jaws. His oversized head, thin legs, and broad mouth make him comic rather than conventionally handsome, but Marie immediately takes pity on him and places him under her protection.

First appears in chapter 5

The seven-headed ruler of the mice who emerge at midnight and attack the toys in the Stahlbaums' cabinet. Crowned and commanding a large army, he is the Nutcracker's chief enemy.

First appears in chapter 7

A beautiful royal child at the center of Drosselmeier's tale. Her parents celebrate her birth with great splendor, but a conflict with the mice places her under a disfiguring curse.

First appears in chapter 7

The vengeful queen of the mice in Drosselmeier's embedded history. After the palace destroys many of her relatives, she retaliates by cursing the infant Princess Pirlipat.

First appears in chapter 9

The court clockmaker's handsome young nephew, selected to perform the difficult ritual that can restore Princess Pirlipat. He must crack the exceptionally hard Krakatuk nut and complete the task without stumbling.