Extended Chuzzlewit family Seth Pecksniff is a widower with two daughters, who is a self-styled teacher of architecture. He believes that he is a highly moral individual who loves his fellow man, but he mistreats his students and passes off their designs as his own for profit. He is said to be a cousin of old Martin Chuzzlewit. Pecksniff's rise and fall follows the novel's plot arc.
Charity and
Mercy Pecksniff are the two daughters of Mr Pecksniff. They are also known as Cherry and Merry, or as the two Miss Pecksniffs. Charity is portrayed throughout the book as having none of that virtue after which she is named, while Mercy, the younger sister, is at first laughing and girlish, though later events drastically change her outlook on life.
Old Martin Chuzzlewit, the wealthy patriarch of the Chuzzlewit family, lives in constant suspicion of the financial designs of his extended family. At the beginning of the novel he travels with Mary, an orphan he raised, who is his companion and caretaker. She receives an income while he is alive and is not named in his will; he feels this motivates her to keep him alive. Later in the story, with Mary still his companion, he makes an apparent alliance with Pecksniff, who, he believes, is at least consistent in character. His own true character is revealed by the end of the story.
Young Martin Chuzzlewit is the grandson of old Martin Chuzzlewit. He is the closest relative of old Martin, and has inherited much of the stubbornness and selfishness of the old man. Young Martin is the
protagonist of the story. He is 21 years old at the start, and older than the usual apprentice to an architect. His engagement to Mary is the cause of estrangement between himself and his grandfather. By the end of the story he is a reformed character, having realised and repented of the selfishness of his previous actions.
Anthony Chuzzlewit is the brother of old Martin. He and his son, Jonas, run a business called Chuzzlewit and Son. They are both self-serving, hardened individuals who view the accumulation of money as the most important thing in life.
Jonas Chuzzlewit is the mean-spirited, sinisterly jovial son of Anthony Chuzzlewit. He views his father with contempt and wishes for his death, so that he can have the business and the money for himself. He tried to hasten the old man's death, but his father's friend intervened. He is a suitor of the two Miss Pecksniffs, wins one, then is driven to commit murder by his unscrupulous business associations.
Mr and Mrs Spottletoe are the nephew-in-law and niece of old Martin Chuzzlewit, Mrs Spottletoe being the daughter of old Martin's brother. She was also once the favourite of old Martin, but they have since fallen out.
George Chuzzlewit is a bachelor cousin of old Martin.
Characters in England Thomas (Tom) Pinch is a former student of Pecksniff's who has become his personal assistant. He is kind, simple and honest in everything he does, serving as a
foil to Pecksniff. He carries in his heart an extreme loyalty and admiration for Pecksniff until he discovers Pecksniff's true nature through his treatment of Mary, whom Pinch has come to love. Because Tom Pinch plays such a large role in the story he is sometimes considered the novel's true protagonist. He started as an apprentice long ago, and is 35 years old when he leaves to start a new life in London.
Ruth Pinch is Tom Pinch's sister. She is sweet and good like her brother, and she is beautiful. At first she works as a governess to a wealthy family, but later she and Tom set up home together. She falls in love with, and marries, Tom's friend John Westlock.
Mark Tapley, the good-humoured employee of the Blue Dragon Inn and suitor of Mrs Lupin, the landlady of the inn, leaves to find work that might be more of a credit to his character: that is, work sufficiently miserable that his cheerfulness will be more of a credit to him. He eventually joins young Martin Chuzzlewit on his trip to the United States, where he finds at last a situation that requires the full extent of his innate cheerfulness. Martin buys a piece of land in a settlement called Eden, which is in the midst of a
malarial swamp. Mark nurses Martin through illness and they eventually return to England. Mark is a few years older than Martin.
Montague Tigg / Tigg Montague is a down-on-his-luck rogue at the beginning of the story, and a hanger-on to a Chuzzlewit cousin named Chevy Slyme. Later Tigg starts the Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested Loan and Life Assurance Company, which pays off early policyholders' claims with premiums from more recent policyholders. Tigg lures Jonas into the business.
John Westlock ends his 5 years training under Pecksniff as the story opens. His comments about Pecksniff reveal that architect's real character to the reader. He is great friends with Tom Pinch. Soon after he leaves Pecksniff, Westlock comes into his inheritance, and he lives in London. After Tom Pinch moves to London, John serves as a mentor and companion to Tom and his sister. He falls in love with and eventually marries Ruth Pinch.
Mr Nadgett is a soft-spoken, mysterious individual who is Tom Pinch's landlord and serves as Montague's private investigator. He is hired to investigate the private lives of potential clients whom Montague hopes to defraud. It has been claimed that he is the first private investigator in fiction.
Sarah Gamp (also known as Sairey or Mrs Gamp) is an alcoholic who works as a
midwife, a
monthly nurse and a layer-out of the dead. Even in a house of mourning Mrs Gamp manages to enjoy all the hospitality the house can afford, with little regard for the person she is there to minister to, and she is often much the worse for drink. She constantly refers to a Mrs Harris, who is "a phantom of Mrs Gamp's brain ... created for the express purpose of holding visionary dialogues with her on all manner of subjects, and invariably winding up with a compliment to the excellence of her nature". Mrs Gamp habitually carries with her a battered black umbrella: so popular with the Victorian public was the character that
Gamp became a slang word for an umbrella in general. It is believed that the character was based on a real nurse described to Dickens by his friend
Angela Burdett-Coutts.{{citation |last=Summers |first=Annette
Mary Graham is the companion of old Martin Chuzzlewit, who has told her that she will receive nothing from him in his will. She is a beautiful young woman who is loving and loyal. Mary and young Martin Chuzzlewit fall in love. The two lovers are separated by the argument between grandfather and grandson. They are eventually reunited.
Mr Chuffey is Anthony Chuzzlewit's old clerk and lifelong companion. Chuffey protects Anthony from his son Jonas.
Bailey is a boy employed first by Mrs Todgers, then by the fraudster Montague Tigg. He is reported to have suffered a fatal head injury in falling out of a cabriolet, though he eventually recovers.
Mrs. Todgers owns the inn or boarding house where the Pecksniffs stay when in London. As it is for male guests only, she houses Charity and Mercy in her own suite of rooms.
Characters in America Jefferson Brick is a war correspondent in
The New York Rowdy Journal. He typifies the bluster written in American newspapers, which publish every speech made by a local, and have poor knowledge of the world beyond America.
Mr. Bevan is the kind and level-headed American man who meets Martin on his arrival in New York. He aids Martin in returning to England. ==Themes==