Mrs. Todd
Mrs. Almira Todd is a middle-aged widow in Dunnet Landing, and the narrator's landlady, guide, and friend. She supports herself by selling homemade herbal medicine to the villagers and renting out a room in her house. Daughter to Mrs. Blackett and sister to William.
The narrator
This refers to the unnamed female narrator of The Country of the Pointed Firs. The text offers very little information about her, except that she visited Dunnet Landing once before, and has come again to spend the summer working on a writing project. She demonstrates great curiosity about the lives of the village's inhabitants.
Mrs. Begg
A well-respected woman in Dunnet Landing who nevertheless felt stifled by village life. She had three husbands over the course of her life, and dies in Chapter 4.
Captain Littlepage
A very old, retired sea captain who rarely leaves his house in Dunnet Landing. After the narrator gets to know him, he tells her several stories about his career, some of which have supernatural undertones.
Mari' Harris
Captain Littlepage's housekeeper, "a short, impatient, little person" with a reputation for laziness (12).
Gaffet
Captain Littlepage's colleague from earlier in his sea career. According to Captain Littlepage, Gaffet believed he had found a supernatural city in the Arctic.
Johnny Bowden
A young man who escorts Mrs. Todd and the narrator to Green Island.
Mrs. Blackett
Mrs. Todd's sprightly 92-year-old mother. She lives on the small, somewhat remote Green Island with her son William.
William Blackett
Mrs. Todd's kind but pathologically shy brother. In The Country of the Pointed Firs, he lives with his mother on Green Island, although he gets married in the short story "William's Wedding."
Mrs. Fosdick
Susan Fosdick is a friend of Mrs. Todd's from a neighboring village. She makes a poor first impression on the narrator because of her pride and her blithe manner, but they soon become friendly, especially when she tells the narrator about "Poor Joanna" Todd.
Joanna Todd
A long-dead cousin of Nathan Todd, Mrs. Todd's late husband. After her fiance abandoned her, she moved to the isolated Shell-Heap Island, where she lived as a hermit for the rest of her life.
Reverend Dimmick
Dunnet Landing's well-meaning but ineffective young reverend, mentioned mostly in terms of his visit to Joanna Todd on Shell-Heap Island.
Captain Bowden
A sea captain who takes the narrator to visit Shell-Heap Island. He is Mrs. Blackett's nephew.
Sam Begg
A young man from Dunnet Landing who lives off an inheritance from his uncle.
Sant Bowden
An elderly, mentally unstable member of the Bowden family. He marshals the procession at the family reunion. He has always been fixated on the military, but was never allowed to join because of his mental condition.
Sarah Jane Blackett
One of Nathan Todd's cousins. Mrs. Todd does not get along with her, although the narrator never finds out why.
Mrs. Caplin
A guest at the Bowden family reunion, and friend of Mrs. Todd's in Dunnet Landing.
Elijah Tilley
An outwardly grouchy fisherman who turns out to be very friendly when the narrator approaches him. He grieves deeply for his wife, who died eight years before.
Monroe Tennell
A skipper on a lobster boat.
Thankful Hight
The elderly mother of Esther Hight, and an old friend of Mrs. Blackett's. She has an intimidating manner but, like many residents of Dunnet do, becomes amiable once the narrator gets to know her.
Esther Hight
A schoolteacher-turned-shepherdess who lives with her mother, Thankful, in the countryside. She is extremely dedicated to her flock, and is one of few shepherds left in Maine. In "A Dunnet Shepherdess," we learn that she and William Blackett are in love. They marry in "William's Wedding."
Ellen Tolland
An old friend of Mrs. Blackett, who died young of tuberculosis.
Mrs. Captain Tolland
The French-born wife of Captain John Tolland. He met her in Kingston, Jamaica, and brought her home with him to Dunnet Landing. Her struggles to adjust to life in Dunnet are the subject of "The Foreigner."
Captain Tolland
Captain John Tolland isa sea captain from Dunnet Landing who meets his future wife while on assignment in Jamaica. He died at sea many years before the narrator came to Dunnet Landing, though Mrs. Todd remembers him well and tells his story in "The Foreigner."
Eliza Tolland
Captain John Tolland's sister. They lived together before he married, and she usually had the house to herself while he was at sea. She does not take kindly to his new wife.
Abby Martin
An elderly friend of Mrs. Todd's. She lives alone in a remote house several miles inland. Because she was born on the same day as Queen Victoria and bears several other resemblances to the British monarch, she considers herself "the Queen's twin."
Lorenzo
Captain Lorenzo Bowden is Mrs. Todd's uncle. He helps Mrs. Todd break the news of Captain Tolland's death to the latter's widow.
