Mrs. Betsey Quilp
Mrs. Betsey Quilp, his long-suffering wife, who is tortured mentally and physically by her misshapen, cruel husband and made to obey his every wish, even to spying on Little Nell. She inherits her husband’s property after his death. When she marries again, her second husband is the opposite of Quilp in every way.
Frederick Trent
Frederick Trent, Little Nell’s profligate brother. Hating his grandfather, he schemes to have his crony, Dick Swiveller, marry Little Nell so that they may obtain the fortune that they believe the old man has hidden away for his granddaughter.
Richard Swiveller (Dick)
Richard Swiveller (Dick), Frederick Trent’s conniving friend, who is turned by his love for a servant girl into a decent person. Quilp, who hopes to use the young rascal in tracing Little Nell and her grandfather, secures him a position as clerk to Sampson Brass, the dwarf’s attorney; but when Kit Nubbles is arrested and charged with theft on the false testimony of Brass, Dick is instrumental in proving the boy’s innocence. Discharged, he is nursed during an illness by the Marchioness, the Brasses’ slavey, who runs away from home in order to care for him. When he inherits a small annuity, he renames the girl Sophronia Sphynx and sends her to school, where he pays for her education for the next six years. On one of his visits to the school, when the Marchioness is nineteen, the idea comes to him that the next step in their relationship ought to be...