The Shipping News Character Analysis

Quoyle

Quoyle is an unsuccessful newspaperman who moves to his ancestral home on Newfoundland after his life in upstate New York falls apart. His father Guy and brother Dick torment him endlessly for his large size… read analysis of Quoyle

Agnis Hamm

Agnis Hamm is Quoyle’s paternal aunt—she is the younger half-sister of his father, Guy. Agnis and Guy shared their mother—Addy Quoyle—but not their father. Agnis’s father was Cokey Hamm; he… read analysis of Agnis Hamm

Bunny Quoyle

Bunny Quoyle is the older of Petal and Quoyle’s two daughters. She is just six years old when her mother tries to sell her and her sister Sunshine to Bruce Cudd and then dies… read analysis of Bunny Quoyle

Sunshine Quoyle

Sunshine is the younger of Petal and Quoyle’s two daughters. She is four and a half when she’s sold to Bruce Cudd, her mother dies, and the family moves to Newfoundland. She is… read analysis of Sunshine Quoyle

Petal Bear

Petal Bear is Quoyle’s wife and the mother of Bunny and Sunshine. She’s small, attractive, and a constant flirt. Quoyle mistakes her sexual appetite for love and within a month of meeting her… read analysis of Petal Bear

Wavey Prowse

Wavey Prowse is a local of Killick-Claw and a widow with whom Quoyle becomes romantically involved after he moves to Newfoundland. Wavey makes a living painting the wooden figurines that she and her father, Archie… read analysis of Wavey Prowse

Jack Buggit

Jack Buggit is the owner of the Gammy Bird and Quoyle’s employer after he moves to the island. With Mrs. Buggit, he had two sons, Jesson and Dennis. Jack grew up on… read analysis of Jack Buggit

Dennis Buggit

Dennis Buggit is the son of Jack and Mrs. Buggit and the husband of Beety. After Dennis’s older brother, Jesson, died in a storm at sea, Jack tried to forbid Dennis from going… read analysis of Dennis Buggit

Beety Buggit

Beety Buggit is Dennis Buggit’s wife. A kind and caring woman, she takes Bunny and Sunshine under her wings and cares for them along with her own children while Quoyle is at work. She… read analysis of Beety Buggit

Mrs. Buggit

Mrs. Buggit is Jack’s wife and the mother of Jesson and Dennis. She’s intensely loyal and loving to her family even though this means she lives in a near constant state of anxiety… read analysis of Mrs. Buggit

Billy Pretty

Billy Pretty is a reporter working for Jack Buggit at the Gammy Bird, where he covers the crime beat, the home page (which shares recipes and craft projects), and—under the pseudonym Junior Suggs—the “Scruncheons”… read analysis of Billy Pretty

B. Beaufield Nutbeem

Nutbeem is a British expat who finds himself stuck in Newfoundland when his hand-made boat, the Borogrove, founders in a storm. Prior to living in Newfoundland, Nutbeem drifted around the world, mostly in tropical… read analysis of B. Beaufield Nutbeem

Nolan Quoyle

Nolan Quoyle is a cousin to Guy, Quoyle, and Agnis Hamm. He never left Newfoundland. Local gossip claims that he had sex with his wife’s corpse after she died and that he… read analysis of Nolan Quoyle

Partridge

Partridge is Quoyle’s first (and for a long time, only) friend. They met when Partridge struck up a conversation with Quoyle at a laundromat. Partridge is a Black man who lives in Mockingburg, New… read analysis of Partridge

William Ankle

William Ankle was Billy Pretty’s father. The son of a London printmaker, his parents placed him in a children’s home (like an orphanage) when he was a boy because they couldn’t afford to support… read analysis of William Ankle

Tert Card

Tertius “Tert” Card is the managing editor for Jack Buggit’s Gammy Bird newspaper when Quoyle begins working there. Tert is an acerbic, unhappy man who bosses the other newspapermen around and has a drinking… read analysis of Tert Card

Guy Quoyle

Quoyle’s father, Guy, was born in Newfoundland, the son of siblings Sian and Addy Quoyle. He grew up in the house on Quoyle’s Point with three stepsisters, including Agnis Hamm, whom he… read analysis of Guy Quoyle

Bayonet Melville

Bayonet and his wife Silver Melville own a yacht called the Tough Baby. They’re among Agnis Hamm’s loyal customers, and they come to Newfoundland to find her when they want their dining salon… read analysis of Bayonet Melville

Silver Melville

Silver and her husband Bayonet Melville own a yacht called the Tough Baby. They’re among Agnis Hamm’s loyal customers, and they come to Newfoundland to find her when they want their dining salon… read analysis of Silver Melville

Diddy Shovel

Diddy Shovel is the Killick-Claw harbormaster. A large, powerful man even in his older years, Diddy started a club in his 20s for men who were strong enough to hang from a beam by one… read analysis of Diddy Shovel

Mrs. Mavis Bangs

Mrs. Mavis Bangs is a Killick-Claw local who becomes one of Agnis Hamm’s employees. Mrs. Bangs has been married twice, the first time at age 15, and she has lost both her husbands. The… read analysis of Mrs. Mavis Bangs

Dawn Budgel

Along with Mrs. Mavis Bangs, Dawn Budgel is one of Agnis Hamm’s employees. She’s about Quoyle’s age (Agnis tries to set the two up at one point) and she trained in pharology… read analysis of Dawn Budgel

Benny Fudge

Benny Fudge is a reporter for the Gammy Bird. When Quoyle arrives in Newfoundland, Benny is one of the paper’s two restaurant critics, but when Quoyle is promoted to managing editor, Benny gets reassigned… read analysis of Benny Fudge

Ed Punch

Ed Punch is the managing editor of the Mockingburg Record, the newspaper where Partridge and Quoyle work. He’s a hard-nosed, dominant man who gives Quoyle the job almost as a favor and who annually… read analysis of Ed Punch

Jesson Buggit

Jesson was the older of Jack and Mrs. Buggit’s two boys. Although he seemed destined to drown from a young age (once Archie watched Dennis rescue him when he fell into the icy waters… read analysis of Jesson Buggit

Sian Quoyle

Sian Quoyle is Guy’s father and Quoyle’s grandfather. According to Agnis Hamm, Sian began a sexual relationship with his older sister Addy when he was still a preteen and he slid under… read analysis of Sian Quoyle

Herold Prowse

Herold Prowse was the husband of Wavey Prowse and the father of Herry. He had an insatiable sexual appetite and carried out multiple affairs during his marriage, and so he is Petal Bear’s… read analysis of Herold Prowse

Minor Characters

Mercalia

Mercalia is Partridge’s second wife. She’s very intelligent and is working on an advanced degree when Partridge befriends Quoyle. Eventually, she decides to quit school and become a truck driver—the first Black female truck driver in America, according to her proud husband.

Alvin Yark

Alvin Yark is Wavey Prowse’s uncle. He’s a prominent shipbuilder on the northern coast of Newfoundland who has been practicing his trade for decades. Quoyle commissions him to build a boat. Alvin is a kindhearted, hard-working man who often sings a nonsense song to himself under his breath.

Addy Quoyle

Addy Quoyle was Sian Quoyle’s sister and was the mother of Guy (with Sian), Agnis Hamm (with her third partner, Cokey Hamm), and two other girls. After Cokey Hamm’s death, she moved her family to America.

Irene Warren

Irene Warren was Agnis Hamm’s longtime lover and the person who encouraged Agnis to go into the lucrative marine upholstery business. She died of cancer years before the events in the book.

Dick Quoyle

Dick Quoyle is Guy’s firstborn son and Quoyle’s older brother. During their childhood, he torments and teases Quoyle. In adulthood, he joins a self-help cult.

Bruce Cudd

Bruce Cudd is the man in Connecticut to whom Petal sells her two daughters, Bunny and Sunshine, for $7,000. He clearly has despicable plans for the girls, but he is foiled by a malfunctioning camera and is arrested by the police before he can harm them.

Evvie Yark

Evvie Yark is Alivn Yark’s wife and Wavey Prowse’s aunt. She’s a kindhearted woman who passes her time baking and working on fiber crafts like rug hooking.

Herry Prowse

Herry is the son of Wavey and Herold Prowse. He has Down’s Syndrome.

Mrs. Moosup

Mrs. Moosup is the woman who babysits Bunny and Sunshine while Quoyle and Petal are at work when the family still lives in Mockingburg, New York.

Cokey (Norman) Hamm

Cokey Hamm was Addy Quoyle’s third partner and the father of Agnis Hamm. After he was killed, Addy and her family immigrated to America.

Skipper Alfred

Skipper Alfred is a local of Killick-Claw who befriends Bunny and Sunshine. He teaches Bunny cats’ cradle patterns.

Archie

Archie is Wavey Prowse’s father. He is a retired fisherman who makes a living by carving yard ornaments out of wood to sell to tourists.

Kenny

Kenny is Wavey Prowse’s brother. He is a fisherman.