The Garden Party and Other Stories characters

Appears from the start

Linda Burnell's unmarried sister, staying with the family at their seaside house. Restless and alert to admiration, she imagines a life larger than the domestic role available to her.

Appears from the start

Beryl's married sister and the mother of the Burnell children. At the bay she is physically languid and emotionally distant from conventional motherhood, finding rare ease in the landscape and in solitude.

First appears in chapter 2

A prosperous adolescent in the Sheridan family, imaginative and eager to treat the workers erecting the family's marquee as social equals. Her confidence in her own sensitivity is tested when death intrudes on preparations for the garden party.

First appears in chapter 2

Laura's capable, socially assured mother, who oversees the household's elaborate party while claiming to leave decisions to her children. She treats taste and generosity as sufficient answers to discomfort.

First appears in chapter 3

One of the two unmarried sisters left in the family home after their domineering father's death. Habitually anxious and indecisive, she discovers that freedom can be as frightening as the authority that has ended.

First appears in chapter 3

Josephine's sister, quieter and more dreamy but equally shaped by years of submission to their father. His death leaves her trying to distinguish her own wishes from habits of fear and obedience.

First appears in chapter 4

A shy young man who plans to ask Anne Proctor to marry him. Convinced that she prefers his confident friend, he studies a pair of doves as if their behavior could answer his romantic uncertainty.

First appears in chapter 6

An exhausted London charwoman who has endured poverty, bereavement, and the dispersal of her family. She works for a self-absorbed young writer who knows almost nothing of the life behind her service.

First appears in chapter 7

A fashionable wife and mother whose household has been reshaped by an artistic social circle. Her lively letters to her absent husband reveal affection, evasiveness, and a growing distance between the life he values and the one she is choosing.

First appears in chapter 9

An observant, solitary woman who spends Sunday afternoons on a park bench, listening to a band and imagining herself and the other visitors as members of a shared performance.

First appears in chapter 10

A country girl attending her first formal dance. Delighted by the lights, music, and succession of partners, she experiences the ball as an entrance into adult possibility.

First appears in chapter 11

A singing teacher whose severe classroom manner conceals distress over a letter from her fiancé Basil. She tries to conduct her pupils while believing her future marriage has ended.

First appears in chapter 12

A husband waiting eagerly for his wife Janey to return from an overseas voyage. His delight in their reunion is troubled by the intimacy she shared with a dying man aboard ship.

First appears in chapter 14

An aging businessman whose family sees him as the secure center of an ideal household. Fatigue and a sense of being superseded make his successful domestic life feel strangely remote.

Also known as Ellen

First appears in chapter 15

A devoted lady's maid speaking to an unseen visitor about her mistress and her own past. Her cheerful loyalty gradually reveals the personal life and marriage she surrendered to remain in service.