Women in Love characters

Appears from the start

The elder Brangwen sister, a schoolteacher who has already tested independence and love in her own life. She is thoughtful, direct, and wary of surrendering herself to marriage, even as she remains drawn to the possibility of a relationship between equals.

Appears from the start

Ursula's younger sister, recently returned from art school in London. Gudrun is an artist with a sharp, restless intelligence and a fascination with intense experience. She feels estranged from the provincial mining country around her while also finding its power compelling.

First appears in chapter 3

A school inspector and intellectual acquainted with Ursula. He distrusts social convention and seeks a form of intimate partnership that preserves the separate being of each person. His searching talk and abrupt shifts between warmth and withdrawal make him both attractive and difficult to understand.

First appears in chapter 4

The eldest son of the wealthy Crich mine-owning family. Athletic, controlled, and accustomed to command, Gerald is expected to assume greater authority over the collieries. Gudrun is impressed and disturbed by the force with which he imposes his will on a frightened horse and on himself.

First appears in chapter 3

An aristocratic woman and a longtime intimate of Birkin's. Cultivated, commanding, and intensely self-conscious, she presides over a circle devoted to art and ideas. Her attachment to Birkin combines intellectual fascination with a possessive need to retain influence over him.

First appears in chapter 2

Gerald's father, the aging owner of the local collieries. He is a paternalistic industrialist who has tried to treat the miners as dependants under his care. Poor health and the passing of authority to Gerald are already changing his place in both the family and the business.

First appears in chapter 2

Gerald's mother, an aloof and formidable presence at Shortlands. She keeps an emotional distance from ordinary social courtesies and views her husband and children with a severe, private intensity.

Appears from the start

Ursula and Gudrun's practical, strong-minded mother. She is skeptical of grand theories and protective of the hard-won life of her family, meeting her daughters' emotional and intellectual complications with blunt domestic judgment.

Appears from the start

The sisters' warm but sometimes uncertain father. He has difficulty following the direction of his adult daughters' lives, yet remains deeply attached to them and to the household whose stability their choices disturb.

Appears from the start

Gerald's sister, whose wedding brings the Brangwens and Criches together at the opening of the novel. Her marriage is the immediate occasion for Ursula and Gudrun to debate whether marriage offers fulfillment or confinement.

First appears in chapter 10

A young Crich daughter who takes art lessons from Gudrun. Lively and impressionable, she gives Gudrun a reason to visit Shortlands and draws the artist more closely into Gerald's family circle.

First appears in chapter 6

A wealthy, unconventional London acquaintance of Birkin's. His rooms and social circle expose Gudrun to a self-consciously bohemian world whose detachment and appetite for sensation both attract and repel her.

Also known as The Pussum

First appears in chapter 6

A young woman in Halliday's circle who is locked in a hostile attachment to him. Her provocative manner and emotional volatility show Gudrun a version of sexual conflict stripped of conventional restraint.

First appears in chapter 29

A German sculptor whom Gudrun meets among the artists and travelers on the Continent. Small, physically unimpressive, and fiercely assured of his artistic judgment, he interests her as a figure who stands outside the English world and its expectations.