Susan Trinder
Sue Trinder narrates the first and third sections of the novel. In part one she introduces herself as an orphaned who is the fingersmith of the title - on its surface meaning, a petty thief. Connotation endows the word with a significantly different meaning, however, when Sue becomes maid to Maud Lilly. The course of the nature of the relationship between Sue and Maud is one which reveals a complex tangle of secrets, lies and corrupted lineages.
Maud Lilly
Maud narrates the middle section of the novel, by which time much of what is thought to be true in the first part has been revealed as deception. Maud, however, is also being deceived, so her narration is not necessarily one of pure clarification. Maud has been portrayed as a cloistered innocent living with her uncle and helping him with his deviant desire to create a pornographic dictionary. Susan is enlisted to facilitate her escape from this misery through an arranged marriage despite having fallen in love with her. The escape attempt climaxes part one, but in a way that is completely unexpected to Susan and reveals what seems to be a shocking truth about Maud which Maud’s narration explains in a way that leaves those truths even murkier.
Christopher Lilly
The pornography entrepreneur is portrayed by Susan as Maud’s cruel uncle from whom she must escape. The truth turns out to be considerably more intricate as he is revealed to wield a much more complex influence over future events and familial revelations than it would at first seem likely. Like so many others, he is not who he seems yet at the same time is exactly what he seems.
Marianne Lilly
Christopher's sister Marianne is a woman of wealth whose inheritance is pursued with vigor. She is so fearful of family that she leaves her baby in the care of Mrs. Sucksby before she is committed into the mental asylum in which she dies.
Mrs. Sucksby
Susan portrays Mrs. Sucksby is a kind of Fagin-like maternal overseer of a gang of petty thieves and criminals who essentially adopts Susan out of the orphanage and treats her like her favorite. The portrait painted by Susan of Mrs. Sucksby is one of benevolent amorality. Mrs. Sucksby is thus able to convince Susan to take part in a scheme designed to seduce Maud out of her inheritance by posing as a maid, gaining her confidence and convincing her to marry Mr. Rivers. But Mrs. Sucksby, it turns out, has more of Bill Sykes in her than Fagin.
Gentleman Rivers
Real name Richard , but insists upon being addressed as “Gentleman.” He is drafted by Mrs. Sucksby to play the part of the seductive lover whose proposal of marriage will rescue Maud from the clutches of her deviant uncle. Despite having fallen in love with Maud herself during the carrying out of the scheme, Susan goes through the plan to convince Maud to marry Gentleman. And, in fact, the plan works out perfectly except for the end which turns out to go completely off the rails Susan while leaving Gentleman free to drain Maud of every last penny. As things turn out, however, both Gentleman and Maud know things which Susan does not.
