Grandmother
She is the mother of Harry and Amy. She is an old woman adored by almost everyone around. Many see her as the most beautiful woman who ever existed in the human race. However, her granddaughters do not agree with what people see in their grandmother. According to them, she has old-fashioned clothes and her room is smelly.
Maria
She is Harry’s daughter aged 12 years. She is a niece to Aunty Amy and most of the time resides with the grandmother. She joins her sister to critique the assertion that their grandmother is the most beautiful woman around. According to them, their grandmother is old and her clothes too are old-fashioned. Her house smells like dead things.
Miranda
She is Harry's daughter aged eight years old. She is a sister to Maria and a niece to Amy. Together with her sister, they know a lot and they do not consider themselves as young girls because most people surrounding them are adults. They do not believe the claim that those adults were once young children.
Aunty Amy
Amy is the woman in the picture frame seen by the narrator in her grandmother’s house. When she was alive, she was very beautiful but she is no longer on earth as she died when still a young girl.
Harry
He is Amy’s brother and father to Maria and Miranda. Amy was his favorite sister before she passes on. As long as he is concerned, his sister was very beautiful. He argues that her chief beauties are her hair and smile.
Great Aunt Eliza
She is a sister to Harry who goes beyond the lineage of the family's slimness. She is fat, unlike her slim mother who is a symbol of beauty in the family lineage. According to Miranda and Maria, when great Aunt Eliza is seated, she becomes like a 'solid pyramidal monument from floor to the neck' pg 6. Additionally, she squeezes herself through doors.
Great Aunt Keziah
She is a fat woman and Wife to Jacob. She has gained much weight and her husband says that she cannot ride on his horse since she has attained two hundred and twenty pounds.
Uncle John Jacob
Husband to Keziah and he is worried about her sudden increase in weight. She has become so fat to an extent he fears that if allowed riding his horses, they might collapse. Therefore, he restrains her from riding the horse until further notice.
Cousin Cora
She is a cousin to Maria and Miranda. However, she is much older than them. The young girls ask her many questions regarding Aunt Amy. She tries to explain to them how Amy disappeared and never to be seen again.
Uncle Bill
He is an uncle to Maria and Miranda. Miranda wants to confirm from him on whether Aunt Amy was beautiful as it is claimed by the family lineage. Uncle Bill confirms that Amy was as beautiful as an angel was.
Isabel
She is a cousin to Miranda and Maria. She comes surrounded by a group of men and the impression that she is admirable by many. Miranda hopes to look like her and Aunty Amy when she attains their age.
Molly Farrington
She is a cousin to Maria and Miranda, who is beautiful and belongs to the generation of Amy in gorgeousness.
Narrator
She is the storyteller who has much understanding of the family of Harry and the history of his ancestors.
