The Blue Castle characters

Appears from the start

An unmarried woman approaching her twenty-ninth birthday who has spent her life submitting to the judgments and routines of the large Stirling clan. She is timid in company but privately observant, imaginative, and hungry for a life of her own. A frightening medical consultation gives her a reason to stop arranging every choice around her relatives' approval.

Appears from the start

Valancy's widowed mother, with whom she lives. Mrs. Frederick measures respectable conduct by the standards of the Stirling family and expects her daughter to be quiet, grateful, and obedient.

Appears from the start

Valancy's cousin and the household's other constant resident. Cousin Stickles shares Mrs. Frederick's devotion to routine and convention, and her anxious talk helps make home oppressive for Valancy.

First appears in chapter 3

A physician whom Valancy consults secretly because she is too embarrassed to approach the doctor used by her family. His grave diagnosis alters the scale on which she judges fear, duty, and the little time she believes remains to her.

First appears in chapter 5

Valancy's wealthy, domineering uncle, known for setting family members tests and expecting his opinions to carry unusual weight. He treats money as both a measure of character and a means of control.

First appears in chapter 5

A pretty, socially successful cousin who represents everything the family thinks Valancy has failed to become. Olive's charms and prospects are repeatedly placed before Valancy as an unfavorable comparison.

First appears in chapter 10

A notorious local man whose heavy drinking, loud manner, and disregard for respectable opinion have made him an outcast in Deerwood. Valancy sees that his rough behavior coexists with directness and genuine love for his daughter.

Also known as Cissy

First appears in chapter 15

Roaring Abel's daughter and a former friend of Valancy's. Seriously ill and shunned because she had a child outside marriage, Cissy lives quietly in her father's house. Valancy finds her gentle, lonely, and in need of companionship rather than condemnation.

First appears in chapter 17

A solitary man with a doubtful reputation who sometimes visits Roaring Abel. He is casually dressed, self-contained, and indifferent to Deerwood gossip. Though the Stirlings regard him as disreputable, Valancy finds his lack of pretension and his ease in the wilderness compelling.

Appears from the start

A naturalist whose books Valancy reads for their vivid accounts of the Canadian wilderness. His writing has long supplied part of the private, imagined refuge she calls her Blue Castle.