Cranford

Mary Smith is the novel’s narrator. She is an unobtrusive narrator who reveals little information about herself throughout the novel, aside from the fact that she lives in the commercial city of Drumble with her father, who is a businessman. Her name does not even appear until Chapter 14, keeping the focus instead on the village of Cranford and its residents. As a frequent guest of Miss Matty and Miss Pole, she is an honorary member of the Cranford community and has firsthand experience with the small Cranford village. Her narration isn’t necessarily detached, as Mary makes it clear that she loves spending time in Cranford, but she distances herself enough from the narrative to allow readers to form their own impression of Cranford.

Mary may not reveal much about herself, but it is clear through other characters’ interactions with her that she is kindhearted and compassionate. She returns to Cranford to help Miss Matty following Deborah’s death, and she acts as a loyal confidante to Miss Matty, who shares with her some of her deepest secrets. Miss Matty cares tremendously about making the right impression and not offending anyone, so the fact that she shares her lost dreams of marriage and children with Mary suggests that Mary is open-minded and supportive. Mary also joins the Cranford women to help Miss Matty out of her financial predicament. She is so heartbroken by Miss Matty’s situation that she is the first woman in the group to burst into tears, causing all the other ladies to follow suit. As an honorary member of Cranford, Mary is beloved in the Cranford community and an integral part of the women’s inner circle.

Miss Deborah Jenkyns is Miss Matty’s older sister and the Cranford matriarch. She dies at the start of Chapter 3, but her presence remains influential throughout the rest of the novel through Miss Matty. Deborah, or as she is most often referred to in the novel, Miss Jenkyns, sets the standard for how the Cranford women should act. Well-versed in social status, Miss Jenkyns is the daughter of a deceased rector. She is strict and domineering and an adamant believer in keeping up appearances. She is particularly attached to tradition, as her literary dispute with Captain Brown illustrates. She insists that the older and established writer Dr. Johnson is superior to a young Charles Dickens—a sign of her adamant opposition to modernization. She is stubborn and opinionated—so much so that she never lets go of the grudge even after Captain Brown’s repeated attempts at reconciliation.

Miss Jenkyns contrasts sharply with her younger sister Matty, who follows Miss Jenkyns’s lead even after the latter’s death. Miss Jenkyns’s rules govern all of Miss Matty’s decisions and behavior, emphasizing Miss Jenkyns’s domineering force in Miss Matty’s life. There are parts of Miss Matty that Miss Jenkyns would certainly object to, such as her happiness in dining with Mr. Holbrook, an aged bachelor, or her secret longing for children.

Aside from Miss Matty, Miss Pole is the most prominent Cranford woman in the novel. She is the town gossip, and the Cranford women look to her “as a kind of prophetess, from the knack she had of foreseeing things before they came to pass” (217). As the most outspoken spinster in Cranford, Miss Pole has a tendency to exaggerate her stories and make sweeping generalizations without evidence. She is the loudest opponent of marriage and claims to know everything there is to know about men—and therefore how much of a nuisance they are—even though the only man she has ever really interacted with is her own father.

Miss Pole is one of Cranford’s most nitpicky residents, but she has her positive traits. Along with Mary, Miss Pole takes care of Miss Matty and gives her advice following Deborah’s death. Miss Pole also organizes a meeting following the news of Miss Matty’s financial trouble, during which the women all agree to pitch in and help Miss Matty. The Cranford women are so devastated on Miss Matty’s behalf that they all begin to cry, and Mary notices with surprise that “even Miss Pole cried, who had said a hundred times that to betray emotion before anyone was a sign of weakness and want of self-control” (265). Miss Pole may be gossipy and snobbish, but she takes care of her own.

Mr. Thomas Holbrook is Miss Pole’s cousin and courted Miss Matty when they were young. According to Miss Pole, Miss Matty rejected his advances because her father and sister didn’t want her marrying someone below her status. Mr. Holbrook, now an elderly bachelor, has a chance encounter with Miss Matty one day, and he invites her and Mary to his farm for dinner. At the time of their reunion, Mr. Holbrook is about 70 years old. Mary describes him as “a tall, thin, Don Quixote-looking old man” who dresses in a “blue coat with brass buttons, drab breeches, and gaiters” (59).

Mr. Holbrook is an eccentric gentleman who lives his life according to his own preferences and beliefs. His property is not large enough to make him anything higher than a yeoman, but he has no desire to “push himself on, as so many of his class had done, into the ranks of the squires” (56). He insists on remaining Mr. Thomas Holbrook, not “Thomas Holbrook, ESQ.” (57). He resists change and any form of modernization. As he tells Miss Matty, he doesn’t like those “new-fangled ways” (65). He has a deep love and appreciation of beautiful literature and is a very eloquent reader. He dies after fulfilling his dream of visiting Paris, which leaves Miss Matty heartbroken with grief.

Mr. Holbrook’s presence in the novel serves to highlight the novel’s theme of nostalgia and longing. Miss Matty could have had a fulfilling life with Mr. Holbrook—a lost dream that Miss Matty still pines for, though she tries not to admit to it. Her terrible pain upon learning of his death represents not only her grief for having lost him, but also having lost what might have been.

Peter Jenkyns is Miss Matty and Deborah Jenkyns’s younger brother, who ran away from home when he was a child. When Miss Matty tells Mary the story of how Peter disappeared, she refers to him as “Poor Peter” (98). Miss Matty says that he was “a very gentlemanly boy in many things,” but he was extremely mischievous and “did like joking and making fun” (100). As a child, Peter delighted in pranking—or “hoaxing” as Matty calls it—the women of Cranford, who do not appreciate being made fun of or tricked. Peter was the opposite of his strict older sister Deborah, to Deborah’s annoyance and disappointment.

Peter undergoes a drastic change in character after his father flogs him for dressing up as Deborah. He comes into the house “looking like a man, not like a boy” and then suddenly disappears (104), not to be seen again until after his mother dies from grief. Peter’s response to his father’s cruelty suggests that Peter lost his innocence that day and went off to fulfill his expected gender role as a soldier and a man. When he returns to Cranford, he shows that over the decades he was away, he became quite successful and resourceful. He is no longer “poor Peter,” but a protective brother to Miss Matty in her time of need. His ability to bring peace to Cranford and even end the feud between Mrs. Jamieson and Lady Glenmire emphasizes that Miss Matty is his top priority because the dispute causes her anxiety. Even though he is a man, he wins the Cranford women over with his adventurous stories—some of which Mary suspects may be exaggerated.

The Honourable Mrs. Jamieson is the sister-in-law of the late Earl of Glenmire. She is considered Cranford’s authority on etiquette and social conventions—so much so that even Deborah “had always yielded the post of honour” to her (48). Mary describes Mrs. Jamieson as “fat” and says that the women of Cranford find her “dull, and inert, and pompous, and tiresome” (223). Even so, the Cranford ladies look to Mrs. Jamieson to determine the appropriate procedure in all matters—most notably the infamous engagement between Lady Glenmire and Mr. Hoggins.

Mrs. Jamieson proves to be quite petty and cruel once she learns of Lady Glenmire’s engagement. Mary says that Mrs. Jamieson is “pleased” to learn that Lady Glenmire is taking Mr. Hoggins’s name because “it only convinced her of what she had known from the first, that the creature had a low taste” (277). Mrs. Jamieson is clearly a woman who cares more about status than anything else, especially considering that Lady Glenmire is technically family to her. Where Mrs. Jamieson previously expressed reluctance to introduce the aristocratic Lady Glenmire to the “lowly” ladies of Cranford, Mrs. Jamieson shows that her respect for Lady Glenmire was entirely conditional.

Lady Glenmire is Mrs. Jamieson’s widowed sister-in-law; she was married to the brother of Mrs. Jamieson’s late husband. As the daughter of Governor Walker and the widow of a titled man, Lady Glenmire is higher on the social chain than Mrs. Jamieson, but she is much friendlier and more down-to-earth. The Cranford women are initially anxious about how they should act in front of Lady Glenmire but are pleasantly surprised to find her “bright, and kind, and sociable, and agreeable” (223). They are also shocked to discover that Lady Glenmire does not wear fancy clothes but instead dresses rather shabbily. Lady Glenmire’s kindness and modest clothing show that unlike the stuffy, haughty Mrs. Jamieson, she does not care much about status and rules of decorum.

Lady Glenmire continues to assert her free-spirited personality throughout the novel by going against the grain, such as when she easily admits that they all caused a fuss over the robberies with no evidence. Most notably, she gets engaged to Mr. Hoggins, who is much lower than her in status, which horrifies the Cranford women. No one is more distraught by the engagement than Mrs. Jamieson, whose petty reaction highlights the difference between her and the much kinder Lady Glenmire.

Martha is Miss Matty’s new maid following Miss Jenkyns’s death. She is “blunt and plain-spoken to a fault” but ultimately a “brisk, well-meaning, but very ignorant girl” (53). Martha is exceptionally loyal to and respectful of Miss Matty, even when Miss Matty’s rules encroach on her social life. Martha is desperate for Miss Matty to let her invite gentlemen callers to the house, but she knows Miss Matty is very conservative and fearful of letting men in the house. She sneaks suitors in on occasion but tries very hard to hide their presence.

Martha shows her unwavering loyalty to Miss Matty after Miss Matty finds herself penniless following the bank debacle. Martha refuses to leave Miss Matty’s side even though she knows she can’t pay for her services. She even comes up with a plan to marry Jem and convinces him to let Miss Matty live with them. Jem is clearly not quite ready for marriage, but Martha is a strong-willed young woman who is not shy about getting what she wants. She will do anything for Miss Matty because she holds her in the highest regard, and if it means pushing Jem into marriage before he is ready, she has no problem doing so. Martha is a bold young woman who may not follow the acceptable rules of decorum, but who loves Miss Matty fiercely and unconditionally.

Mrs. Forrester, Miss Fitz-Adam, and Miss Betty Barker are members of the Cranford community. They do not play as large of a supporting role as some of the other Cranford women, but they are often present for social gatherings. All three of the ladies are of a lower status and therefore reluctantly tolerated by the Cranford women. The “kind, gentle, shabbily dressed” Mrs. Forrester has not had a “very happy or fortunate life” (188). She is an officer’s daughter and the widow of a major. Her husband fought the French in Spain, which influences her empty claim that the French must be involved in the alleged Cranford robberies.

Mrs. Fitz-Adam is the widowed sister of the Cranford surgeon, Mr. Hoggins. Her parents were “respectable farmers, content with their station” (123). She returned to Cranford after the death of her husband as “a well-to-do widow, dressed in rustling black silk, so soon after her husband’s death” that the Cranford women found it bold and distasteful (124). Mrs. Fitz-Adam is not of genteel birth, but the Cranford women put aside their snobbery and reluctantly accept her into their circle because, as Miss Pole says, “if [they] did not relax a little, and become less exclusive, by-and-by [they] should have no society at all” (125).

Miss Betty Barker is another woman whom the Cranford women tolerate despite her lower status. She is the daughter of an old Cranford clerk and was once a maid to the Honourable Mrs. Jamieson before opening up a milliner’s shop with her sister. Miss Betty Barker has an “aristocratic connection” with Lady Arley, who keeps Miss Betty apprised of the latest fashion trends. Despite her humble beginnings, she takes every opportunity to show off her understanding of social status; Miss Betty Barker and her sister will not sell their clothing to “anyone without a pedigree” (119). She also does not invite Mrs. Fitz-Adam to her party because she doesn’t deem her worthy of being in Mrs. Jamieson’s presence. Miss Betty may be “a retired milliner,” but “she was no democrat, and understood the difference of ranks” (123).