Character Tree

George A. Newman’s A Miserable Revenge is narrated from an omniscient third-person perspective, often shifting the focus between multiple characters within each chapter. To maintain suspense, Newman frequently omits and hides character names and relationships, which can cause confusion for readers. Use the below character tree to explore the novel’s rich cast of characters and to reveal their hidden identities and complex relationships.

By sliding the middle bar, users are able to maneuver back and forth to reveal the complete character tree to evaluate the true relationships at the end of the narrative. By clicking on each character’s name, you will reveal a brief character summary describing who they are, who they are related to, and their major plot points.

Credit: Caroline McKeown and Natalie Reitano

Works Cited

Bild, Aída Díaz. “Mrs. Fielding: The Single Woman as the Incarnation of the Ideal Domestic Women.” Atlantis, vol. 39, no. 1, 2017, pp. 55–70. 

“Charles W. Chesnutt Archive.” Charles W. Chesnutt Archive, https://chesnuttarchive.org/. 

Grammer, John M. A Companion to the Literature and Culture of the American South, edited by Owen Robinson and Richard Grey, Wiley and Sons, 2004.

“Interactive Timeline.” Celebrating Simms: The Story of Lucy F. Simms School, https://omeka.lib.jmu.edu/simms/timeline. 

“Irish American Stereotypes.” Racial & Ethnic Relations in America, edited by Kibibi Mack-Shelton and Michael Shally-Jensen, 2nd ed., vol. 2, Salem Press/Grey House, 2017, pp. 687-688.

Isbell, John Claiborne. “The Late Eighteenth-Century Confluence of British-German Sentimental Literature/Henry Crabb Robinson: Romantic Comparatist, 1790–1811.” European Romantic Review, vol. 33, no. 1, 2022, pp. 85–90.

Japtok, Martin. “‘The Gospel of Whiteness’: Whiteness in African American Literature.” Amerikastudien / American Studies, vol. 49, no. 4, 2004, pp. 483–98.

Kete, Mary Louise. “Sentimental Literature.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature, 26 July 2017.

Newman, George A. A Miserable Revenge: A Story of Life in Virginia, edited by Mollie Godfrey, Brooks Hefner, Jeslyn Pool, and Evan Sizemore, James Madison University Libraries, 2025.

Pool, Jeslyn, and Evan Sizemore. “Mapping the Characters in A Miserable Revenge.” A Miserable Revenge: A Story of Life in Virginia, edited by Mollie Godfrey, Brooks Hefner, Jeslyn Pool, and Evan Sizemore, James Madison University Libraries, 2025, pp. 294–95.

Railton, Stephen. Digital Yoknapatawpha, https://faulkner.iath.virginia.edu/. 

Ruth and Lowell Toliver Collection of Newman Family Papers, circa 1875-2005, SC 0313, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.