Of Human Bondage

Mildred is an important secondary character in the novel. She is Philip’s major love interest, but to some extent she also functions as the antagonist of the novel. Mildred frustrates Philip’s desires to build a stable life and career for himself because his desire for her distracts him: Under the influence of this attraction, he fails exams and spends a lot of money, which eventually precipitates a total financial collapse.

While Mildred of course cannot be held responsible for the obsession that Philip develops, she quickly begins to intentionally exploit Philip’s desire and manipulates him. Mildred uses Philip for money and security, often coming to him in times of crisis. However, she never feels attraction or even respect toward him. Mildred is quite repulsed by Philip but relies on him when it is convenient for her. As she eventually tells Philip when she lashes out at him: “[Y]ou bored me stiff, and I hated you, I would never have let you touch me only for the money” (481).

Mildred has an unusual physical appearance that Philip finds striking, and which ends up fueling his obsessive desire for her. She is very thin and pale; her appearance reveals that she is not healthy and cannot afford a nutritious diet: “Her thin lips were pale, and her skin was delicate, of a faint green color” (267). Mildred also lacks the voluptuous curves that were often considered to be part of what made a woman attractive. Mildred is easily bored and likes to be stimulated and distracted at all times. She is not interested in intellectual topics, but she is highly conscious of her social standing and how she may be perceived.

Mildred does not change or evolve over the course of the novel, although her circumstances get worse and worse as a result of her choices. When Philip first meets her, Mildred is able to earn an income, is able to maintain a certain amount of social respectability, and has the prospect of advancing herself through marriage. However, after becoming an unwed mother and then eventually being driven to sex work in order to support herself and her child, Mildred’s social position declines significantly. She does not want to attempt to find other types of work and tells Philip bitterly, “Men haven’t been so good to me that I need bother my head about them” (545). Thus, while Philip, as an educated man, is able to achieve independence and stability by the novel’s close, Mildred’s decline reflects her more limited economic options and vulnerabilities as a lower-class woman.

Thorpe Athelny is an important secondary character who plays a significant role in Philip’s life, eventually becoming Philip’s father-in-law. Even before Philip begins a relationship with Sally, Athelny already functions as a kind of surrogate father figure to Philip, who has never known his own father and has a strained relationship with the uncle who raised him. Athelny first meets Philip when he is a patient in the hospital where Philip works, and Philip becomes interested in him because he can tell that Athelny is an intelligent and well-educated man who enjoys discussing many of the topics that also interest Philip.

Athelny functions as one of the many male characters who give Philip the opportunity to reflect on the life he is building for himself and what he may want to emulate. While he is generally quite happy with his life, Athelny has made unconventional choices. Athelny was previously unhappily married to a wealthy woman, but he fell in love with Betty, who worked as one of the housemaids. Despite Betty not being educated and coming from a different class status, Athelny is much happier being with her. He has to compromise and hold a job that he finds demeaning in order to support his family, but Athelny provides a model of how socially unconventional choices can result in greater happiness.

While he is an intellectual, Athelny is also warm, friendly, and open. He quickly welcomes Philip into his family and is always generous to him. When Athelny learns that Philip is so penniless that he has nowhere to live, he gently rebukes Philip for not asking for help: “Betty and I have been just as broke in our day, only we had babies to look after. Why didn’t you come here?” (503). Athelny plays a significant role in the plot because he gives Philip the care and unconditional love that Philip has always longed for. The affectionate way in which he treats Philip prepares Philip to eventually embrace a future in which he marries Sally Athelny, building a similar family structure of his own.

Cronshaw is a poet whom Philip first encounters when he is studying art in Paris. Years later, their paths cross again when Cronshaw returns to London and gets in touch with Philip. Philip ends up caring for Cronshaw until his death.

Cronshaw is an eccentric man who prefers to lead a bohemian lifestyle, rejecting many social norms. This bohemian ethos initially makes him an object of fascination to Philip and the other young art students. Cronshaw is a skilled poet, but he does not manage his career effectively, and as a result, he lives and dies in poverty. A collection of his poems is finally compiled and published shortly after his death. Cronshaw also struggles with alcohol dependency, a condition that eventually leads directly to his death from liver failure.

Cronshaw has a major impact on shaping Philip’s worldview because the two of them first meet when Philip is a young man, often discussing philosophy and the meaning of life together. Cronshaw also makes a cryptic comment that Philip thinks about for years afterward: “You were asking just now what was the meaning of life. Go and look at those Persian carpets, and one of these days the answer will come to you” (211). Cronshaw plays a significant role in forming Philip’s conception of the man he wants to be while also functioning as a cautionary tale about The Dangers of Financial Instability.