The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club Study Guide

Central characters

• Samuel Pickwick— the main protagonist and founder of the Pickwick Club. Following his description in the text, Pickwick is usually portrayed by illustrators as a round-faced, clean-shaven, portly gentleman wearing spectacles.
• Nathaniel Winkle— a young friend of Pickwick's and his travelling companion; he considers himself a sportsman, though he turns out to be dangerously inept when handling horses and guns.
• Augustus Snodgrass— another young friend and companion; he considers himself a poet, though there is no mention of any of his own poetry in the novel.
• Tracy Tupman— the third travelling companion, a fat and elderly man who nevertheless considers himself a romantic lover.
• Sam Weller— Mr Pickwick's valet, and a source of idiosyncratic proverbs and advice.
• Tony Weller— Sam's father, a loquacious coachman.
• Alfred Jingle— a strolling actor and charlatan, noted for telling bizarre anecdotes in a distinctively extravagant, disjointed style.

Supporting characters

• Joe— the "fat boy" who consumes great quantities of food and constantly falls asleep in any situation at any time of day; Joe's sleep problem is the origin of the medical term Pickwickian syndrome which ultimately led to the subsequent description of Obesity hypoventilation syndrome.
• Job Trotter— Mr Jingle's wily servant, whose true slyness is only ever seen in the first few lines of a scene, before he adopts his usual pretence of meekness.
• Mr Wardle— owner of a farm in Dingley Dell. Mr Pickwick's friend, they meet at the military review in Rochester. Joe is his servant.
• Rachael Wardle— Mr. Wardle's spinster sister, who tries in vain to elope with the unscrupulous Jingle.
• Mr Perker— an attorney of Mr Wardle, and later of Mr Pickwick.
• Mary— "a well-shaped female servant" and Sam Weller's "Valentine".
• Mrs Martha Bardell— Mr Pickwick's widowed landlady who brings a case against him for breach of promise.
• Emily Wardle— one of Mr Wardle's daughters, very fond of Mr Snodgrass.
• Arabella Allen— a friend of Emily Wardle and sister of Ben Allen. She later elopes with Mr. Winkle and marries him.
• Benjamin "Ben" Allen— Arabella's brother, a dissipated medical student.
• Robert "Bob" Sawyer— Ben Allen's friend and fellow student.