Edgar Huntly: Or, Memoirs of a Sleepwalker

Clithero Edny is Edgar’s foil and the first-person narrator of the novel’s story-within-a-story. When the novel begins, he is a sleepwalking but “diligent” (47) Irish immigrant working for one of Edgar’s neighbors, Inglefield. His confession to Edgar is about killing Arthur Wiatte—the brother of his former employer in Ireland, Euphemia Lorimer—and attempting to kill Euphemia, but nearly killing his beloved Clarice (Arthur’s daughter and Euphemia’s foster-daughter) by accident. Sarsefield, who ends up marrying Euphemia, calls Clithero a “maniac” (250).

Conversely, Edgar has deep sympathy for Clithero, believing he is both the “author and sufferer” (237) of his crimes. Both men are characterized as inhabited by spirits—Edgar “had imbibed” a “spirit, vengeful, unrelenting, and ferocious” (182), and Clithero is “possessed” by a “demon” (94). Both men hide papers and kill “evil” people (63). Being in an “uncultivated region” (43) causes Clithero to become even more “savage” (255) than Edgar; he takes on deer-like qualities that are used to describe Native Americans by the end of the novel. This causes Edgar to agree, in his last letter, that Clithero is indeed a maniac.

While his first name doesn’t appear in the novel, Sarsefield is given the last word—the final letter—in the novel. His versions of events appear in dialogue (enclosed in quotation marks), so he is never fully a first-person narrator like Edgar or Clithero. Sarsefield enters the narrative of Clithero’s confession as the original, lost beloved of Euphemia, and he eventually becomes her second husband. Edgar reflects that Sarsefield tutored him, and Sarsefield returns to America after Edgar disappears into the cave 30 miles from his home. Sarsefield, a surgeon, is the most sane and civilized—part of “no vulgar order” (218)—of the three main characters. From his recovery of Waldegrave’s letters to his attempts to protect Euphemia, Sarsefield takes on a parental role and offers the most reliable narrative.  

Inglefield, whose first name never appears, is Edgar’s uncle’s closest neighbor in Solesbury; the elm where Waldegrave was killed sits between their properties. Over the course of the novel, Inglefield employs Clithero; offers information about his employee to Edgar; provides protection for Edgar’s sisters after the death of Uncle Huntly; aids Sarsefield in the search for Edgar and the Native Americans; and takes in Edgar after he has been wounded on his journey. Inglefield is a steadfast supporting character—he regards Edgar with “paternal affection” and acts with his “usual kindness” (47) throughout the text. 

Arthur, usually referred to as Wiatte, is the most unambiguously “evil” character in the novel. He keeps his twin sister, Euphemia Lorimer, from marrying her true love (Sarsefield); participates in gambling and highway robbery; abandons his daughter (Clarice); and attacks Clithero in his attempt to get to Euphemia. Arthur’s return from the dead after being part of a mutiny on a ship of felons foils Edgar’s resurrections (in the eyes of Sarsefield), but Arthur “exceeded in depravity all that has been imputed to the arch-foe of mankind” (63) and is killed by Clithero in self-defense. Clithero believes Euphemia’s fate is intertwined with her twin’s, but Euphemia only faints (instead of dies, as Clithero feared) when Arthur’s death is revealed. 

Euphemia is only referred to as Mrs. Lorimer until Chapter 26. Her “benevolence” foils her twin’s evil nature. She financially supports Clithero, then Sarsefield after Arthur’s supposed death. She raises Clarice and saves her from Clithero’s violence and plans to financially support Edgar after marrying Sarsefield. Sarsefield and Clithero successfully protect her from Arthur in the story-within-a-story, but Sarsefield is unable to intercept Edgar’s letter about Clithero in time, and its contents cause her to have a miscarriage. Her manuscript is buried under the elm by Clithero, unearthed by Edgar, hidden in the cave by Edgar, recovered by Clithero, and isn’t mentioned again. This pattern of hiding and discovery mirrors the letters written by Waldegrave that Edgar hides while sleepwalking that Sarsefield locates in Uncle Huntly’s attic. Euphemia’s role as sister to Arthur also foils Mary’s relationship to Waldegrave. 

Clarice, Arthur’s daughter, is raised by Euphemia and is the object of Clithero’s affections. She resembles Euphemia so much that Clithero mistakes her for his benefactress and almost stabs her in a darkened bedroom. In the story-within-a-story, Clarice leaves Dublin to stay with a dying friend (who remains unnamed), which delays her marriage to Clithero. Clithero declaims her “charms.” After killing Arthur, Clithero loses Euphemia’s blessing and, presumably, Clarice’s love.  

Mary, Waldegrave’s sister, is Edgar’s bride-to-be and the recipient of the letter that comprises most of the novel. She never appears as part of the action (even in flashback), and her words are never quoted, but she is directly addressed by Edgar throughout. As the second person “thee,” “thy,” and “thou,” Mary acts as a stand-in for the distant reader.

Waldegrave never gets a first name and his murder, which occurs prior to the opening of the novel, is the impetus for Edgar’s investigation in Solesbury. In early letters to Edgar, Waldegrave espoused his then-favorite “tenants—such as “to destroy the popular distinctions between body and soul” (132)—which he later renounced. Waldegrave worked as a teacher in a school for free blacks. After his death, Waldegrave’s money went to his sister (and her marriage to Edgar), but a man named Weymouth approaches Edgar and says the money is actually his, held by Waldegrave for safe keeping. At the end of the novel, the reader learns that Native Americans murdered Waldegrave.

Weymouth isn’t given a first name, but he is the one who provides the titular character’s name, and he only appears in Chapters 14 and 15. As a merchant, Weymouth purchases items, such as “wine from Madeira” (142), and sells them. He asks Waldegrave to hold onto a large sum of money while he sets sail, but the venture is sunk; a shipwreck costs him everything. There are no papers that corroborate Weymouth’s story, but Edgar tells Mary (in his letter) to give this man the money, which will delay their marriage. After Weymouth’s visit, Edgar has his worst case of sleepwalking, waking to a cave 30 miles away. 

More of a father figure, Mr. Huntly is Edgar’s uncle who took in Edgar after his parents were killed by Native Americans, which foreshadows how he is killed by Native Americans during the search for Edgar. Mr. Huntly, a retired military man, hired Sarsefield to tutor Edgar when he was young. Sarsefield describes his “temerity” and “hardihood” (222), which he demonstrated even in his last fight where he lost Edgar’s gun to the Native American who killed him.  

Edgar refers to this Native American as both Old Deb and Queen Mab. The latter is primarily a Shakespearean nickname that Edgar gave her; Mab also appears in other works that predate Edgar Huntly, like a 17th-century play by Ben Jonson, and many subsequent works, like a poem by Percy Shelley and a chapter title in Moby Dick. Other members of her Lenni Lenape tribe migrated east, but she stayed behind and lives near Edgar’s uncle. Her hut is the scene of much of the violence between Edgar and the Native Americans, but she is not present in those scenes. Her hut is also used by Clithero after she is detained for her “mischief” (252).