- Margaret Lea: a bookstore owner's daughter, whom Vida Winter asks to write her biography. The primary narrator of the book.
- Vida Winter: a famous novelist who has eluded reporters as to her true past, and is now ready to reveal her secrets to Margaret. Formerly known as Adeline March (a secret used as one of the "three verifiable truths" that Miss Winter reveals to Margaret at the beginning of the story). Later revealed as the ghost and secret paternal younger half-sister to the twins.
- Isabelle Angelfield: the younger of George Angelfield's two children and the mother of twins Emmeline and Adeline.
- Charlie Angelfield: Isabelle's older brother, who harbours an obsessive incestuous and sadistic passion for his sister.
- Emmeline March: the calm, complacent twin. Generally presumed by most to be mentally retarded.
- Adeline March: the angry, violent twin.
- Aurelius Love: a resident of the Angelfield village, raised by Mrs. Love, he befriends Margaret. Born from twin Emmeline.
- John Digence/"John-the-dig": Angelfield's longtime gardener and the Missus' companion.
- The Missus: Angelfield's aged housekeeper who essentially raises the twins along with John-the-dig.
- Hester Barrow: governess to Adeline and Emmeline.
- Dr. Maudsley: the town doctor who, along with Hester, attempts to help the twins through experimentation.
- George Angelfield: Charlie and Isabelle's father, who ignores the former and dotes on the latter after his wife's death.
- Mathilde Angelfield: Charlie and Isabelle's mother, who dies giving birth to Isabelle.
- Judith: Vida Winter's housekeeper.
- Dr. Clifton: Vida Winter's doctor.
- Mrs. Love: a woman who lived in the vicinity of Angelfield and raised Aurelius from the time he was left on her porch as an infant.
- Ambrose Proctor: a boy who worked at the Angelfield estate when the twins were about 16, has a more important role in the story that we learn later.
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