The Happy Prince ("The Happy Prince")
The Happy Prince is the statue of a deceased prince who had lived his entire life without knowing sorrow. The ornate statue is stunning and is encrusted with sapphires, a ruby, and gold leaf. In death, the Happy Prince despairs of the suffering of his people, which compels him to ask the Swallow to donate all the gems he possesses. In the end, he is left completely bare and the Mayor orders him pulled down, but he and the Swallow are united in heaven with God.
The Swallow ("The Happy Prince")
The Swallow stops to rest on the statue of the Happy Prince on his way to Egypt, and is initially blustery and standoffish towards the Prince when asked to help the townspeople. However, the Swallow reveals his character and appears a generous, compassionate, and friendly creature. He grows to love the Prince and stays with him until his own death.
The Giant ("The Selfish Giant")
The Giant is initially a selfish creature, annoyed by the children who played in his garden when he was gone. His heart thaws over time, though, as he sees that Spring and Summer avoid his garden. Once he lets the children back in, he feels particularly compassionate towards a small boy trying to ascend a tree. The boy returns many years later and the Giant realizes it is Christ.
The Crying Child/Jesus ("The Selfish Giant")
The crying boy is the only child who does not run away from the Giant, as he was trying to climb a tree at the time. His innocence warms the Giant’s heart, leading to him breaking down the walls surrounding his property. The child never comes back to the garden until many years later. He is still a child, even though the Giant has grown very old, and he bears the stigmata, revealing himself to be Jesus. He only comes back to take his friend the Giant up to Heaven.
The Nightingale ("The Nightingale and the Rose")
She is a romantic bird who believes a student’s plight for a red rose to offer to his beloved. She ultimately has to sacrifice her life by singing a song while pushing a thorn into her heart. When she dies producing this red rose, the student takes it to the woman he loves, only to be rejected.
The Student ("The Nightingale and the Rose")
He is an academic student blinded by love and who is devastated when the woman he loves states she could only be with him if he finds her a red rose. Unfortunately, as they are in winter, there are no roses in bloom. His plight strikes a chord in the nightingale’s heart, and she goes as far as giving her life to produce a red rose for him. When he can finally go to the lady with the red rose, she rejects him again because she has received jewels from another suitor. As a result, the student rejects the very idea of love.
The Rose-tree ("The Nightingale and the Rose")
The Rose-tree informs the Nightingale of what she needs to do in order to produce a red rose for the student.
The Rocket ("The Remarkable Rocket")
The Rocket is an exceedingly egocentric character. He is self-important and self-absorbed, thinking that the firework display is more important than the wedding it is to celebrate. He remains delusionally confident in his superiority even as he explodes with no audience.
Little Hans ("The Devoted Friend")
He is a selfless gardener who naively does favors for his friend the Miller, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he is being taken advantage of. Hans's kindness and generosity are ultimately not rewarded, however, and he dies carrying out a favor of getting the doctor to the Miller's son during a terrible storm.
The Miller ("The Devoted Friend")
The Miller is a comically exaggerated egomaniac. He believes himself to be a superior, devoted friend to Hans while never acting like one. He is manipulative and self-congratulatory.
The Water-rat ("The Devoted Friend")
A rude and selfish creature, the Water-rat has no family and claims friendship is more important than anything. He considers himself a devoted friend, but when asks what that means, replies that his friends are devoted to him and that is all that matters.
The Linnet ("The Devoted Friend")
The teller of the tale of the "Devoted Friend," the Linnet hopes to reveal to the Water-rat that his idea of devoted friendship is flawed by sharing this story and its moral.
The Miller's Wife ("The Devoted Friend")
Like the Miller, she is avaricious and self-interested. She praises her husband's idea of friendship.
The Miller's Son ("The Devoted Friend")
The Miller's son is the only one in the family who shows any compassion towards Hans, suggesting they invite him up and share their food with him.
The Young King ("The Young King")
Raised by a goatherd and his family, the young King does not know he is royalty until he is a young man. He is preparing for his coronation, dreaming of that which most entranced him—beauty. However, the night before the big event he has a series of dreams that reveal the suffering of those poor individuals tasked with sewing his robe and looking for pearls and gems for his crown and scepter. Humbled, he decides to forego the lavish raiment and wears simple garb.
The Infanta ("The Birthday of the Infanta")
She is the graceful and snobbish little daughter of the Spanish King. It is her birthday and she attends performances from a variety of people, delighting in their bullfighting, dancing, and playacting. She finds the Dwarf detestably ugly but hilariously entertaining, and throws him a rose in a mocking gesture. Later when she comes across the poor dead creature, she sniffs that there should be no more entertainers that have hearts.
The Dwarf ("The Birthday of the Infanta")
A shriveled and monstrous figure who dances with the gypsies for the Infanta, he, at first, does not know what he truly looks like. He becomes entranced with the Infanta and dreams of remaining by her side. However, as he seeks her out in the palace he comes into a mirrored room and discovers that he is grotesque, and that the Infanta was only mocking him. He collapses and dies of a broken heart.
Don Pedro ("The Birthday of the Infanta")
He is the evil and cruel uncle of the Infanta and brother to the King. It is alluded to that he desires the throne for himself.
The Grand Inquisitor ("The Birthday of the Infanta")
He is the King's confessor and the person who discerns that the Dwarf has died of a broken heart.
The King ("The Birthday of the Infanta")
The King is a brokenhearted man due to his lovely wife's death not long after giving birth to the Infanta. Once a month, he visits her exquisitely embalmed corpse and sobs before it; his despair precludes him from attending any of his daughter's birthday festivities. He wishes to leave his position but will not abandon his daughter to his evil brother, Don Pedro.
The Star-Child ("The Star-Child")
The Star-Child was stolen from his mother when he was a baby and raised by the Woodcutter and his wife. As he is slender and handsome, he is much admired, but he grows up prideful and cruel. He does not realize the error of his ways until he drives his mother, now returned as an old beggar, away and becomes ugly himself. He journeys to find her and learns that beauty is found on the inside, and one must be generous to his fellow man. At the end, he assumes his identity as a Prince.
The Woodcutter ("The Star-Child")
The Woodcutter and his wife adopt the Star-Child as their own. Unlike his fellow woodcutter, this man is kind and charitable.
The Beggar-woman ("The Star-Child")
The Beggar-woman is the Star-Child's birth mother, but when she encounters her son when he is a young man, she is down on her luck and is poor, ugly, and haggard. He sends her away and does not meet her until the end of the story, when he profusely apologizes for his behavior. She is actually the Queen as well, and welcomes her son alongside her husband the King.
The Magician ("The Star-Child")
The Magician is from Libya and is a cruel, manipulative figure. He buys the Star-Child as a slave and orders him into the woods to procure the gold he needs. He beats him when he returns without it.
The Leper ("The Star-Child")
The leper is actually the King and the Star-Child's father in disguise, testing the boy to see if he is kind and decent.
The Young Fisherman ("The Fisherman and His Soul")
The young Fisherman is obsessively in love with the little Mermaid and decides to rid of his Soul to be with her. For a few years, he is blissfully happy, but when he decides to reunite with his Soul, he ends up committing terrible acts and desires only reunion with his love. The little Mermaid does not come back to him, though, until she washes up dead on shore. The fisherman confesses to her his wrongs and joins her in death.
The Little Mermaid ("The Fisherman and His Soul")
She is a pretty and joyous creature whom the Fisherman falls in love with. She cannot be with him when he has a Soul, so he gives it up for her.
The Soul ("The Fisherman and His Soul")
The Soul of the Fisherman is desperate to rejoin his body, but is cast off. He spends several years traversing fantastic places and looking for exotic items, always hoping to entice the Fisherman out of the city. When finally rejoined, the Soul claims that since he has no heart he only learned to do evil, so he forces the Fisherman to do terrible things. He finally decides to reside in the Fisherman's heart but can only get in when the young man dies.
