family (the town he grew up in, Burden's Landing, was named for his
ancestors), and knows many of the most important people in the state.
Despite his aristocratic background, Jack allies himself with the
liberal, amoral Governor Stark, to the displeasure of his family and
friends. He uses his considerable skills as a researcher to uncover the
secrets of Willie's political enemies. Jack was once married to Lois
Seager, but has left her by the time of the novel. Jack's main
characteristics are his intelligence and his curious lack of ambition; he
seems to have no agency of his own, and for the most part he is content to
take his direction from Willie. Jack is also continually troubled by the
question of motive and responsibility in history: he quit working on his
PhD thesis in history when he decided he could not comprehend Cass
Mastern's motives. He develops the Great Twitch theory to convince himself
that no one can be held responsible for anything that happens. During the
course of the novel, however, Jack rejects the Great Twitch theory and
accepts the idea of responsibility.
Willie Stark -- Jack Burden's boss, who rises from poverty to become
the governor of his state and its most powerful political figure. Willie
takes control of the state through a combination of political reform (he
institutes sweeping liberal measures designed to tax the rich and ease the
burden on the state's many poor farmers) and underhanded guile (he
blackmails and bullies his enemies into submission). While Jack is
intelligent and inactive, Willie is essentially all motive power and
direction. The extent of his moral philosophy is his belief that everyone
and everything is bad, and that moral action involves making goodness out
of the badness.
Willie is married to Lucy Stark, with whom he has a son, Tom. But his
voracious sexual appetite leads him into a number of afiairs, including one
with Sadie Burke and one with Anne Stanton. Willie is murdered by Adam
Stanton toward the end of the novel.
Anne Stanton -- Jack Burden's first love, Adam Stanton's sister, and,
for a time, Willie Stark's mistress. The daughter of Governor Stanton, Anne
is raised to believe in a strict moral code, a belief which is threatened
and nearly shattered when Jack shows her proof of her father's wrongdoing.
Adam Stanton -- A brilliant surgeon and Jack Burden's closest
childhood friend. Anne Stanton's brother. Jack persuades Adam to put aside
his moral reservations about Willie and become director of the new hospital
Willie is building, and Adam later cares for Tom Stark after his injury.
But two revelations combine to shatter Adam's worldview: he learns that his
father illegally protected Judge Irwin after he took a bribe, and he learns
that his sister has become Willie Stark's lover. Driven mad with the
knowledge, Adam assassinates Willie in the lobby of the Capitol towards the
end of the novel.
Judge Montague Irwin -- A prominent citizen of Burden's Landing and a
former state Attorney General; also a friend to the Scholarly Attorney and
a father figure to Jack. When Judge Irwin supports one of Willie's
political enemies in a Senate election, Willie orders Jack to dig up some
information on the judge. Jack discovers that his old friend accepted a
bribe from the American Electric Power Company in 1913 to save his
plantation. (In return for the money, the judge dismissed a case against
the Southern Belle Fuel Company, a sister corporation to American
Electric.) When he confronts the judge with this information, the judge
commits suicide; when Jack learns of the suicide from his mother, he also
learns that Judge Irwin was his real father.
Sadie Burke -- Willie Stark's secretary, and also his mistress. Sadie
has been with Willie from the beginning, and believes that she made him
what he is. Despite the fact that he is a married man, she becomes
extremely jealous of his relationships with other women, and they often
have long, passionate fights. Sadie is tough, cynical, and extremely
vulnerable; when Willie announces that he is leaving her to go back to
Lucy, she tells Tiny Dufiy in a fit of rage that Willie is sleeping with
Anne Stanton. Tiny tells Adam Stanton, who assassinates Willie. Believing
herself to be responsible for Willie's death, Sadie checks into a
sanitarium. .
Tiny Dufiy -- Lieutenant-Governor of the state when Willie is
assassinated. Fat, obsequious, and untrustworthy, Tiny swallows Willie's
abuse and con- tempt for years, but finally tells Adam Stanton that Willie
is sleeping with Anne. When Adam murders Willie, Tiny becomes Governor.
Sugar-Boy O'Sheean -- Willie Stark's driver, and also his bodyguard--
Sugar-Boy is a crack shot with a .38 special and a brilliant driver. A
stuttering Irishman, Sugar-Boy follows Willie blindly.
Lucy Stark -- Willie's long-sufiering wife, who is constantly
disappointed by her husband's failure to live up to her moral standards.
Lucy eventually leaves Willie to live at her sister's poultry farm. They
are in the process of reconciling when Willie is murdered.
Tom Stark -- Willie's arrogant, hedonistic son, a football star for
the state university. Tom lives a life of drunkenness and promiscuity
before he breaks his neck in a football accident. Permanently paralyzed, he
dies of pneumonia shortly thereafter. Tom is accused of impregnating Sibyl
Frey, whose child is adopted by Lucy at the end of the novel.
Jack's mother -- A beautiful, "famished-cheeked" woman from Arkansas,
Jack's mother is brought back to Burden's Landing by the Scholarly
Attorney, but falls in love with Judge Irwin and begins an afiair with him;
Jack is a product of that afiair. After the Scholarly Attorney leaves her,
she marries a succession of men (the Tycoon, the Count, the Young
Executive). Jack's realization that she is capable of love--and that she
really loved Judge Irwin-- helps him put aside his cynicism at the end of
the novel.
Sam MacMurfee -- Willie's main political enemy within the state's
Democratic Party, and governor before Willie. After Willie crushes him in
the gubernatorial election, MacMurfee continues to control the Fourth
District, from which he plots ways to claw his way back into power.
Ellis Burden -- The man whom Jack believes to be his father for most
of the book, before learning his real father is Judge Irwin. After
discovering his wife's afiair with the judge, the "Scholarly Attorney" (as
Jack characterizes him) leaves her. He moves to the state capital where he
attempts to conduct a Christian ministry for the poor and the unfortunate.
Theodore Murrell -- The "Young Executive," as Jack characterizes him;
Jack's mother's husband for most of the novel.
Governor Joel Stanton -- Adam and Anne's father, governor of the state
when Judge Irwin was Attorney General. Protects the judge after he takes
the bribe to save his plantation.
Hugh Miller -- Willie Stark's Attorney General, an honorable man who
resigns following the Byram White scandal.
Joe Harrison -- Governor of the state who sets Willie up as a dummy
candidate to split the MacMurfee vote, and thereby enables Willie's
entrance onto the political stage. When Willie learns how Harrison has
treated him, he withdraws from the race and campaigns for MacMurfee, who
wins the election. By the time Willie crushes MacMurfee in the next
election, Harrison's days of political clout are over.
Mortimer L. Littlepaugh -- The man who preceded Judge Irwin as counsel
for the American Electric Power Company in the early 1900s. When Judge
Irwin took Littlepaugh's job as part of the bribe, Littlepaugh confronted
Governor Stanton about the judge's illegal activity. When the governor
protected the judge, Littlepaugh committed suicide.
Miss Lily Mae Littlepaugh -- Mortimer Littlepaugh's sister, an old
spiritual medium who sells her brother's suicide note to Jack, giving him
the proof he needs about Judge Irwin and the bribe.
Gummy Larson -- MacMurfee's most powerful supporter, a wealthy
businessman. Willie is forced to give Larson the building contract to the
hospital so that Larson will call MacMurfee off about the Sibyl Frey
controversy, and thereby preserve Willie's chance to go to the Senate.
Lois Seager -- Jack's sexy first wife, whom he leaves when he begins
to
perceive her as a person rather than simply as a machine for gratifying his
desires.
Byram B. White -- The State Auditor during Willie's first term as
governor. His acceptance of graft money propels a scandal that eventually
leads to an impeachment attempt against Willie. Willie protects White and
blackmails his enemies into submission, a decision which leads to his
estrangement from Lucy and the resignation of Hugh Miller.
Hubert Coffee -- A slimy MacMurfee employee who tries to bribe Adam
Stanton into giving the hospital contract to Gummy Larson.
Sibyl Frey -- A young girl who accuses Tom Stark of having gotten her
pregnant; Tom alleges that Sibyl has slept with so many men, she could not
possibly know he was the father of her child. Marvin Frey -- Sibyl Frey's
father, who threatens Willie with a paternity suit. (He is being used by
MacMurfee.)
Cass Mastern -- The brother of Jack's grandmother. During the middle
of the nineteenth century, Cass had an afiair with Annabelle Trice, the
wife of his friend Duncan. After Duncan's suicide, Annabelle sold a slave,
Phebe; Cass tried to track down Phebe, but failed. He became an
abolitionist, but fought in the Confederate Army during the Civil War,
during which he was killed. Jack tries to use his papers as the basis of
his Ph.D. dissertation, but walked away from the project when he was unable
to understand Cass Mastern's motivations.
Gilbert Mastern -- Cass Mastern's wealthy brother.
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