The Chrysalids characters

Appears from the start

A boy growing up in the rigid farming settlement of Waknuk, where any physical departure from the approved human form is treated as an offense against God. David has inherited his community's lessons but is compassionate and curious enough to question them when he befriends a girl whose concealed difference would condemn her.

Appears from the start

A resourceful girl living with her parents outside Waknuk. Sophie has six toes on each foot, a harmless variation that her family hides because the district's authorities would classify her as a Blasphemy and drive her into the lawless Fringes.

Appears from the start

David's father, a prosperous farmer and the most uncompromising religious authority in his household. Joseph regards the government's approved human image as sacred and treats unusual crops, animals, and people as corruption requiring destruction or banishment.

First appears in chapter 4

David's uncle, a widely travelled former sailor whose experience has made him skeptical of Waknuk's certainties. When David confides that he can exchange thoughts without speech, Axel warns him to conceal the ability and becomes his most trusted adult ally.

First appears in chapter 4

David's cousin and closest companion among the small group of young people who communicate by thought. Rosalind is cautious, strong-minded, and acutely aware that discovery would mean interrogation and banishment despite their ordinary appearance.

First appears in chapter 4

Anne's sister and a member of the hidden thought-speaking group. Rachel is loyal to the others and shares the strain of maintaining an ordinary outward life while keeping constant mental contact secret from Waknuk.

First appears in chapter 7

David's aunt, who comes to the Strorm household in desperation after giving birth to a third baby judged physically abnormal. Her plea exposes the cruelty beneath Waknuk's doctrine and the cost borne by families required to surrender children who fail inspection.

First appears in chapter 8

One of the older members of David's hidden thought-speaking group. Michael is calm, strategic, and better able than most of them to consider how the group might protect itself if suspicion falls on one of its members.

First appears in chapter 9

David's much younger sister. Petra's telepathic ability emerges with extraordinary force during moments of distress, overwhelming the older thought-speakers and reaching far beyond the range they believed possible.

First appears in chapter 10

A member of the telepathic group who longs for an ordinary public life. Anne decides that marrying a person without the group's ability will prove they can safely belong in Waknuk, despite the others' fear that intimacy will expose all of them.

First appears in chapter 5

A boy from Waknuk who sees evidence of Sophie's extra toe and realizes her family has concealed a forbidden difference. David's attempt to stop him cannot prevent the secret from reaching the authorities.

First appears in chapter 13

A distant woman who answers Petra's exceptionally powerful mental calls. She lives in a technologically advanced society where thought communication is understood as a further stage of human development, and she urges the Waknuk group to keep Petra safe until help can reach them.

Also known as The Spider-Man

First appears in chapter 14

A leader among the people of the Fringes who closely resembles Joseph Strorm but has abnormally long limbs. Bitterly aware that the same family and doctrine that favored Joseph cast him out, he rules through force and sees Rosalind and Petra as valuable captives.