School for Wives characters

Also known as Monsieur de la Souche

Appears from the start

A prosperous middle-aged man who is terrified of becoming a deceived husband. He has arranged Agnès's upbringing in isolation, believing that ignorance will make her obedient, and intends to marry her. In the neighborhood where he has recently acquired a house, he uses the name Monsieur de la Souche.

Appears from the start

Arnolphe's friend and skeptical confidant. Chrysalde argues that controlling a wife's education cannot guarantee fidelity and warns that Arnolphe's confidence may expose him to the ridicule he fears.

Appears from the start

A young woman raised under Arnolphe's direction with little education or knowledge of society. She is candid and inexperienced rather than incapable of judgment. While Arnolphe has been away, she has met a young man whose attention awakens desires she has never been allowed to examine.

Appears from the start

The young son of Arnolphe's friend Oronte. Newly arrived in town, Horace has fallen in love with Agnès without knowing that Arnolphe is the guardian he knows as Monsieur de la Souche. Taking Arnolphe for a sympathetic family friend, he freely confides the progress of the courtship to the very man trying to stop it.

Appears from the start

One of Arnolphe's household servants and a keeper of Agnès's secluded home. He and Georgette are slow to answer their master and prove unreliable guardians of the rigid system Arnolphe has designed.

Appears from the start

A servant in Arnolphe's household who shares with Alain the task of watching Agnès. Her anxious, clumsy obedience repeatedly complicates Arnolphe's attempts to control access to the house.

First appears in chapter 5

Horace's father and an old friend of Arnolphe. He arrives with a marriage arrangement for his son and expects Arnolphe to help ensure Horace's compliance.

First appears in chapter 5

Chrysalde's brother-in-law, recently returned after a long absence. His history supplies the missing connection between Agnès's hidden origins and the marriage Oronte has planned for Horace.