Lena Lingard
Jim Burden remarks, “To dance ‘Home, Sweet Home’ with Lena was like coming in with the tide.” A sensuous, Norwegian immigrant girl, Lena is like Circe in Homer’s Odyssey, distracting men from their goals. She likes to have fun and plans never to marry. Later, she becomes a successful dressmaker.
Tiny Soderball
A hired girl in Black Hawk, she eventually moves to Seattle and opens a lodging house. She becomes rich in Alaska when a dying prospector deeds her his mine. Like Lena Lingard, she never marries, but unlike Lena, she becomes cynical in later life.
Johnnie Gardener
He owns the Boys’ Home Hotel in Black Hawk, where Tiny works. He likes to drink and have a good time, but he realizes he’d be only a clerk if it weren’t for Mrs. Gardener, whom he is a little afraid of.
Molly Gardener
The best-dressed woman in Black Hawk, she is indifferent to her possessions. Taciturn and cold, there is “something Indian-like in the rigid immobility of her face.” She is the one who keeps the hotel going. The hotel bus is named “Molly Bawn” for her.
Blind d’Arnault
A black musician who plays the piano one night at the hotel in Black Hawk. His music helps make the dull town life endurable for Jim.
The Vannis
One summer, they arrive in Black Hawk and open a dancing pavilion. They keep good order and close on time. Their tent gives children something to do on long summer nights.
Sylvester Lovett
Sylvester loves Lena Lingard but doesn’t have sufficient courage to marry a “hired girl,” so he marries a widow with property. Jim Burden regards him with contempt.
Harry Paine
Harry, who is to be married soon, tries to kiss Ántonia. Mr. Harling hears the fuss and gives Ántonia an ultimatum: Either she give up going to the dances or else she move out and find work elsewhere.
Larry Donovan
A train conductor and professional ladies’ man, Larry courts Ántonia and persuades her to come to Denver on the promise of marriage. He doesn’t marry her, spends all of her money, gets her pregnant, and disappears.
Anna Hansen
Always dignified, Norwegian Anna is a hired girl working for the Marshalls.
Ole Benson and Crazy Mary
Ole is a simple, discouraged farmer who has a crush on Lena Lingard. His wife, Crazy Mary, chases Lena with a corn knife.
Mary Dusak
One of the three Bohemian Marys, she is bold, resourceful, and unscrupulous. Her broad face, marked with smallpox scars, is framed with beautiful chestnut hair. The housekeeper for a bachelor, she becomes pregnant with his baby.
Mary Svoboda
Another of the Bohemian Marys, she too has an illegitimate baby. The three Marys are considered highly explosive, but, in time, they all settle down to become thrifty housewives.
Gaston Cleric
Jim Burden’s mentor and the head of the Latin Department at the university in Lincoln. Having suffered a long illness while he was in Italy, he came west at his doctor’s suggestion.
Colonel Raleigh
Lena Lingard’s landlord in Lincoln falls in love with her and gives her a black spaniel named Prince. The southern colonel has invested his money in real estate at inflated prices and cannot understand why his estate value is dwindling.
Ordinsky
A Polish violin teacher, also in love with Lena, he thinks Colonel Raleigh and Jim are compromising her reputation. Finally, he decides that Jim is a worthy friend. He is often wild-tempered, raving about the poor cultural tastes of Lincoln’s citizens.
Anton Cuzak
He comes to visit his cousin Anton Jelinek, meets and marries Ántonia Shimerda, and reluctantly becomes a farmer. Homesick at times, he works hard and credits Ántonia for helping make the farm prosper.
