Next

Mary Katherine (“Merricat”) Blackwood

The eighteen-year-old narrator, and an unusual young woman. She is extremely protective (bordering on possessive) of her older sister, practices a kind of witchcraft, and wishes death upon people she doesn’t like.

Read an in-depth analysis of Merricat Blackwood.

Constance Blackwood

Merricat’s twenty-eight-year-old sister who was acquitted of killing their family, though people remain suspicious of her. She has isolated herself at the Blackwood home ever since the trial, though she yearns for companionship and a return to the outside world.

Read an in-depth analysis of Constance Blackwood.

Julian Blackwood

Merricat and Constance’s uncle, and their father’s brother. Uncle Julian, having survived the poisoning from six years earlier, has been in poor health ever since.

Charles Blackwood

Merricat and Constance’s thirty-two-year-old cousin who comes to visit and bears a striking resemblance to their father, John Blackwood. Charles’s father is their uncle, Arthur Blackwood. Initially presenting himself as helpful, Charles ultimately proves to be overbearing, impatient, and greedy.

Helen Clarke

A family friend who knew Merricat and Constance’s parents. She comes to tea every Friday, and encourages Constance to return to the world. She is horrified by the villagers’ behavior at the end of the novel.

Jim Clarke

Helen Clarke’s husband. He and Dr. Levy are two of the only men who do not partake in the ransacking of the Blackwood home. A dutiful husband, he checks on the sisters at his wife’s insistence.

Mrs. Lucille Wright

A friend of Helen Clarke’s. She possesses a morbid curiosity about the murders; frightened at first, she nonetheless becomes engrossed in the story once Uncle Julian begins to tell it.

Joe Dunham

The carpenter. He claims never to have received payment from the Blackwoods after fixing a broken step, but Merricat notes Constance didn’t pay because he did not repair the step correctly.

Jim Donell

The village fire chief. He hates the Blackwoods openly, unlike many of the other villagers who merely whisper about them behind their backs.

Mrs. Donell

Jim Donell’s wife. She, like her husband, thinks poorly of the Blackwoods.

Stella

The owner of the coffee shop, and a widow. She is polite to Merricat, and Merricat regards her with more fondness than anyone else in the village. However, in the end, Stella taunts the two sisters alongside the rest of the villagers.

John Blackwood

Merricat and Constance’s father who died of arsenic poisoning. Though he doesn’t appear in the novel, Merricat’s memories of him, and his apparent similarities to Charles, suggest he was haughty and imperious.

Mrs. Blackwood

Merricat and Constance’s mother who died of arsenic poisoning. Though she doesn’t appear in the novel, Merricat the details Merricat and Constance share suggest she was reserved and disdainful of the villagers.

Thomas Blackwood

The Blackwoods’ ten-year-old son, and Merricat and Constance's younger brother, who ate the most sugar and died of arsenic poisoning.

Dorothy Blackwood

Uncle Julian’s wife, and Merricat and Constance’s aunt. She, along with the other Blackwoods, died of arsenic poisoning.

Arthur Blackwood

Charles’s father, and John Blackwood’s brother. Arthur did not offer any help to the family during the trial, meaning Merricat had nowhere to stay and thus was forced to live in an orphanage.

Dr. Levy

The doctor who attends to Uncle Julian once a week. He is always in a hurry. At the end of the novel, he returns to check on Merricat and Constance.

The Shepherds

One of the old families. They provided the village with its town hall.

The Harlers

The family that currently lives in the Rochester house, which Merricat believes ought to belong to Constance, as their mother was born there. Their yard is frequently strewn with junk.

Miss Dutton

A woman from the village who stares at Merricat out the window of the post office.

Mr. and Mrs. Elbert

A married couple from the village. They own Elbert’s Grocery, where Merricat does her shopping.

The Harris boys

Two young boys whose house Merricat must pass on her way home. They taunt her with a rhyme about Constance offering Merricat a poisoned cup of tea.

Jonas

Merricat’s cat.

Mrs. Shepherd, Mrs. Rice, and Mrs. Crowley

Women who occasionally stop by the Blackwood home after church to tell Constance and Merricat they would have enjoyed the service.

Mr. and Mrs. Carrington

Old friends of Merricat and Constance’s parents. They occasionally stop by to check on the girls, but never come inside, opting to make polite chitchat from inside their car in the driveway.

Jack Mason

The doctor Constance called the night the family was poisoned. He has been dead for three years by this point.

Next section Merricat Blackwood

Popular pages: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Take a Study Break