Last Updated on May 6, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 261

Bert Gooderich

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Bert Gooderich, a stolid machinist who falls off a bridge and is drowned.

Mary

Mary, his wife, thankful to marry Bert after having been deserted by her lover, a baker’s boy, the father of Minnie.

Young Bert

Young Bert, their son, big, strong, and pugnacious, with an ambition to be a soldier. Shortly after his enlistment, he is killed at Pretoria.

Hannibal

Hannibal, another son, a big, inarticulate, bungling lout who becomes a factory worker, a ship’s mess boy, and finally a trimmer on the S.S.Cyaryatid. He dies of pneumonia caused partly by inhalation of coal dust and partly by the cough syrup for which Minnie had written advertisements.

Minnie

Minnie, Mary’s daughter, a stubborn, difficult girl, thin and reserved, engaged for a time to a coal clerk. She becomes Captain Briscoe’s mistress, later his wife. She is jailed for engaging in a suffragette demonstration. She is also a writer of advertisements for cough syrup.

Captain Briscoe

Captain Briscoe, a ship’s captain, Minnie’s lover and later her husband.

Nellie

Nellie, Hannibal’s wife, a plump, merry girl. She works in her uncle’s tavern and later manages it.

Mrs. Gaynor

Mrs. Gaynor, an American woman, next-door neighbor of the Gooderich family.

Hiram

Hiram, her son, a sailor.

Mrs. Wilfley

Mrs. Wilfley, a greedy woman who organizes a benefit musicale for the Gooderich family and pockets most of the receipts.

Anthony Gilfillan

Anthony Gilfillan, a middle-aged man who befriends Minnie at a party and later takes her to the Continent with him.