"The Sisters"
Aunt: Kind and caring, she is the narrator's guardian and brings him to Father Flynn's wake.
Eliza: She is one of Father Flynn's aging sisters who cared for her brother.
Father Flynn: Father Flynn is a mad suffering Catholic priest who dies, to the dismay of the young narrator.
Narrator: The narrator is a nameless young boy who experiences his first encounter with death.
Old Cotter: He is a busybody family friend who announces Father Flynn's death. He annoys the narrator by calling him a child.
Nannie: She Father Flynn's other sister. She answers the door to the narrator.
Uncle: He is the narrator's guardian and a friend of Old Cotter.
"An Encounter"
Joe Dillon: Joe Dillion is a schoolboy who introduces the narrator to the Wild West. He always wins at Cowboys and Indians and has a calling for the priesthood.
Leo Dillon: Leo is Joe Dillon's younger brother. He contributes money to the effort but fails to play hooky with the narrator and Mahony.
Mahony: Mahoney plays hooky with the narrator and accompanies him on his adventures in Dublin. The narrator admits he doesn't care much for Mahony but is glad for his company when they encounter the scary Old Man.
Narrator: An intelligent nameless young boy who, longing for adventure, plays hooky and spends the day in Dublin where he encounters a threatening strange Old Man who likes talking about little girls and whipping little boys.
Old Man: He is the sexually perverted old man the narrator and Mahony encounter on their travels around Dublin.
"Araby"
Aunt: Kind and caring, the aunt is the narrator's guardian.
Uncle: Much to the narrator's chagrin, his uncle gets home late and causes the boy to miss most of the bazaar.
Mangan: He is the narrator's friend who lives across the street
Mangan's sister: She is the girl with whom the narrator is in love.
Narrator: He is a young teenage boy just awakening to erotic desire. He tells Mangan's sister he will get her a gift from the Araby bazaar.
"Eveline"
Eveline: The protagonist is a nineteen year-old girl who is planning to leave Ireland with her fiance Frank to live in Buenos Aires in an effort to escape her hash Dublin life.
Father: Abusive and brutal, Eveline's father threatens to beat her and takes all her salary, even though she cares for him and her siblings.
Frank: Eveline's fiance, Frank wants her to run away with him to Buenos Aires.
Mother: Before she died raving mad, Eveline's mother asked Eveline to hold the family together.
"After the Race"
Jimmy Doyle: He is a wealthy Irish young man who entertains thoughts of being accepted by an international group of young men who race cars. He learns the hard way that he will never fit in and loses a lot of money in a card game to learn the lesson.
Farley: A rich American, Farley attended Cambridge University with Segouin.
Andre Riviere: Riviere is a French-Canadian car mechanic.
Routh: An Englishman, he is another of Segouin's wealthy Cambridge friends. He argues with Jimmy Doyle at dinner over Irish sovereignty.
Charles Segouin: He is Doyle's very wealthy French friend from Cambridge. He takes control and shows the group around Dublin.
Villona: A Hungarian, Doyle is a charming but very poor musician and friend from Cambridge.
"Two Gallants"
Corley: He is a despicable, ugly, "oily" man who uses women for sex while he cons them out of money.
Lenehan: He is a desperately lonely man with a bleak future who hangs on Corley's every word in hopes of sharing money from victimized women.
Slavey: Lenehan and Corley refer to Corley's girl as a "slavey," a servant girl who works as hard as a slave. She gives Corley a gold coin.
"The Boarding House"
Mr. Doran: Hard-working and respectable, Mr. Doran is a lodger at Mrs. Mooney's boarding house who has an affair with her daughter Polly and is forced into marriage to avoid scandal.
Jack Mooney: He is Polly's tough protective brother.
Mrs. Mooney: Very competent and manipulative, she is the owner of the boarding house who sets her daughter loose among her lodgers to find a husband.
Polly Moony: She is Mrs. Mooney's nineteen year-old daughter who has an affair with her mother's lodger Mr. Doran and becomes pregnant so she can trap him into marriage.
"A Little Cloud"
Ann: Ann is Little Chandler's controlling wife.
Baby: Little Chandler's son, he cries when his father attempts to read the poet Byron. Chandler screams "stop," which makes the son cry even harder.
Ignatius Gallagher: Gallagher is Little Chandler's friend who left Ireland for England eight years earlier and made a successful career as a journalist.
Little Chandler: Although not particularly short, Little Chandler gives the impression of being a child. He dreams of being a successful writer like his friend Gallagher but is too paralyzed by life in Ireland to take action to fulfill his dream.
"Counterparts"
Mr. Alleyne: Mr. Alleyne is Farrington's abusive, tyrannical boss.
Miss Delacour: An important wealthy client, she hears Mr. Alleyne humiliating Farrington after he fails to produce two missing letters from her file.
Farrington: An alcoholic clerk, he is terrorized and verbally abused by his boss. He pawns his watch for drink money, drinks all evening and returns home to beat his son.
Nosey Flynne, O'Halloran, Callan, Paddy Leonard: These are the men with whom Farrington spends the evening drinking in a variety of Dublin's pubs.
Mr. Shelley: He is the chief clerk at Farrington's office.
Tom: Tom is Farrington's young son who, despite his attempts to please, is beaten without mercy by his drunken father.
Weathers: A younger pub-crawling friend of Farrington's, he beats the older man at arm-wrestling.
"Clay"
Joe Donnelly: Maria cared for him and his brother Alphy when their own mother could not. He has had a fight with his brother and this greatly saddens Maria. He invites Maria to celebrate Halloween in his home.
Mrs. Donnelly: She is Joe's wife who treats Maria with love and kindness. She arranges for Maria to pick another item from the table in lieu of clay, which symbolizes death.
Maria: An older unmarried woman who is employed by and lives at the Dublin Lamplight Laundry, the hardworking protagonist is tolerant, peaceful simple, and generous.
The Matron: The supervisor at the laundry charity, she thinks the world of Maria.
"A Painful Case"
James Duffy: He is a lonely, isolated middle-aged banker who has a friendly relationship with Mrs. Sinico only to realize four years after her death how much he cared for her and how desperately lonely he feels.
Mrs. Sinico: A lonely middle-aged woman, she begins a relationship with Duffy because her traveling husband ignores her. She is hit by a tram one night when she is drunk.
Mr. Sinico: A traveling businessman, he ignores his wife.
"Ivy Day in the Committee Room"
Boy: A seventeen-year-old boy who brings in the beer and drinks one when offered.
Mr. Crofton: Crofton is a Conservative canvassing for Tierney as the "lesser of two evils."
Mr. O'Connor: He is a canvasser for the Nationalist candidate, Richard Tierney, not so much for the issues that Tierney supports but for the money.
Mr. Hynes: Haynes is young and passionate and cares about the working man. He does not support Tierney because the candidate wants to welcome England's King Edward to Dublin. He reads his poem commemorating Parnell's death.
Mr. Henchy: Henchy is a canvasser who casts aspersions on Tierney and doubts he can win the election. He also likes to gossip and drink. He believes Hynes is a spy for the opposition.
Father Keon: Possibly a defrocked priest with Nationalist sympathies, he is possibly a drunk and an object of gossip.
Old Jack: He is an old man who likes to complain and gossip. He works to elect Nationalist candidate, Richard Tierney.
Richard Tierney: He is the Nationalist candidate that seems like a Conservative. He maintains the status quo and doesn't care about the poor.
"A Mother"
Mr. Bell: He is the extremely nervous second tenor who sings in the concert.
Mr. Duggan: He sings bass in the concert.
Mr. Fitzpatrick: The secretary of the Eire Abu society, he palms Mrs. Kearney off on Mr. Holahan.
Madam Flynn: She sings soprano, poorly, in the concert.
Miss Healy: She is a singer and Kathleen's friend who takes over as accompanist.
Mr. Holohan: He is in charge of making the arrangements for the concert and contracts with Mrs. Kearney for her daughter Kathleen to be the accompanist. He attempts to placate Mr. Kearney and then argues with her.
Kathleen Kearney: She is the shy piano accompanist and completely passive in the matter of her salary.
Mr. Kearney: He is Mrs. Kearney's milquetoast husband who stands by while she argues over their daughter Kathleen's wages.
Mrs. Kearney: She is the stubborn, manipulative, nasty protagonist who fights for her daughter Kathleen's s wages after one of her contracted concerts is cancelled. Her absolute insistence on advance payment destroys her daughter's music career.
Mr. O'Madden Burke: He is the writer who is to review the performance. He is appalled by Mrs. Kearney's behavior and confidently predicts Kathleen will never again play in Dublin.
"Grace"
Martin Cunningham: Likeable and highly regarded for his intelligence and great philosophical insights, Cunningham is the leader of the meeting intent on bringing Kernan to a religious retreat to help stop his drinking.
Mr. Fogarty: He is another of Kernan's friends who joins the group in the bedroom. He brings a pint of whiskey to the meeting.
Mr. Kernan: He is an alcoholic in need of help to sober up because his health is dwindling and his family is slipping into poverty. He is set up by friends to go to a retreat.
Mrs. Kernan: She is deeply concerned about her husband's drinking and although she has little confidence in a cure she is happy to know he is going on the retreat.
Mr. M'Coy: He is another of Mr. Kernan's friends who is part of the plot to get him to the retreat.
Mr. Power: He is the friend of Mr. Kernan's who comes up with the retreat idea to help cure Mr. Kernan's alcoholism.
Father Purdon: He leads the retreat which Kernan and his friends attend. He simply compares Jesus to an accountant and suggests the men put the books of their lives in order.
"The Dead"
Mr. Browne: He is an amiable, elderly Protestant man who likes to drink.
Gabriel Conroy: Gabriel is the well-educated, snobbish but insecure protagonist who learns that the wife he believed he knew is a stranger. He is isolated from people and he, like the others, realizes will one day die.
Gretta Conroy: Gretta is Gabriel's friendly wife from Galway who has remained in love with Michael Furey, a boy who loved her passionately before he died at a very young age.
Mr. Bartell D'Arcy: He is the tenor who sings "The Lass of Aughrim," which reminds Gretta of Michael Furey.
Miss Ivors: A colleague of Gabriel's, she supports Irish language education and cultural independence from England. She teases him about his love of the European continent instead of his own country.
Aunt Julia: She is the younger Morkin sister who co-hosts the Christmas party and also sings "Arrayed for the Bridal" in an aging but beautiful voice.
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Aunt Kate: She is the older of the Morkin sisters and the co-host of the Christmas party who cannot hear Gabriel's speech honoring her and her sister.
Mary Jane: She is Gabriel's cousin and a piano teacher who was raised by the Aunts and remains living in their home.
Mrs. Malins: She is Freddy Malins surly mother who is angry about his drinking.
Freddy Malins: He is another nephew of the Morkin sisters and a drunk whom Gabriel attempts to contain.
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