Cloud Atlas Characters

Jocasta is the wife of Vyvyan Ayrs and the eventual secret lover of Robert Frobisher. Robert seems to have sex with Jocasta as a way to be more like his musical hero, Ayrs, but as he grows more disillusioned with Ayrs, he begins to resent Jocasta as well.

Veronica Costello plots with Ernie Blacksmith and Timothy Cavendish to escape Aurora House. She acts as a mediator, helping Ernie and Timothy put aside their egos to cooperate.

Lloyd Hooks is a former political appointee who wants to get involved with Seaboard Power. Grimaldi fiercely opposes giving Lloyd a seat on the board, so Lloyd has Grimaldi killed in a way that looks like an accident.

Ma is the mother of Zachry who helps hold the family together after the death of Pa and the kidnapping of Adam Bailey. She welcomes the outsider Prescient Meronym into her home.

Adrian Frobisher, the brother of Robert Frobisher, died in World War I. He represents an impossible ideal that Robert will never live up to, which contributes to the discord between Robert and his father.

Mr. Chang is a chauffeur for Boardman Mephi. He is always kind to Sonmi~451, making him one of the first characters to treat Sonmi like a normal human.

Mr. D’Arnoq is a white man on the Chatham Islands who, after speaking with Adam Ewing, makes Adam an unwilling participant in a scheme to get the Moriori islander Autua to freedom in Hawaii.

Mrs. Judd is the woman who works at reception at Aurora House. Like Mrs. Noakes, she uses the small amount of authority she has to oppress the residents of the nursing home.

Hendrick is a servant of Vyvyan Ayrs. Robert Frobisher imagines Hendrick is having sex with Ayrs’s wife, Jocasta, but this may just be a reflection of Robert’s own guilty conscience (since Robert himself is having sex with Jocasta).

Monsieur van de Velde is a friend of Vyvyan Ayrs’s family who lets Eva live with his family when she’s at school. Robert Frobisher and Eva bond over how boring the van de Velde family is.

Mr. Hotchkiss is the son of a woman who lives in Aurora House. He always leaves his key in the engine, which becomes a key part of Timothy Cavendish’s escape plan.

Catkin is Zachry’s sister. When she gets poisoned by a scorpionfish, it motivates Meronym to break her promise not to intervene with the Valleysmen lifestyle.

Mr. Evans is an old white man on the Chatham Islands who first introduces Adam Ewing to the story of the Moriori, a tribe indigenous to the islands.

Mr. Boerhaave is the first mate on the Prophetess, the ship where Adam Ewing is a passenger. Boerhaave is sadistic and treats crew members cruelly, driving the young Rafael to suicide by repeatedly raping him.

Margot Roker is a woman who opposed Seaboard Power. As a result, Bill Smoke assaulted her, and she fell into a coma. Watching Bill Smoke attack Margo was a turning point for Napier, who began to regret his choices.

Rafael is a young Australian crew member on the Prophetess who befriends Adam Ewing. Rafael dies by suicide, seemingly to escape the sexual abuse of the first mate, Mr. Boerhaave, and others; Rafael’s death haunts Adam in his nightmares long after.

Preacher Horrox is a British missionary on a Pacific Island who shows the hypocrisy of many missionaries; though he claims to improve the lives of locals, he actually profits off slave labor.

William Wiley is the vice-CEO of Seaboard Power who schemes with Lloyd Hooks to have Grimaldi killed.

Hester Van Zandt is the leader of the anti-nuclear protesters on Swannekke Island.

Ursula is a woman that Timothy Cavendish loved a long time ago. When he sees her again, she’s a grandmother with her own life, and for him, she represents a different life that he might have had.

Jackson Ewing is the son of Adam Ewing who publishes his father’s journal (which Robert Frobisher later finds and reads).

Morty Dhondt is a friend of Robert Frobisher’s who takes him on a drive to try to find the grave of his brother, Adrian Frobisher.

An-Kor Apis is an important member of the Union who communicates with Hae-Joo and Sonmi remotely, giving them orders about where to go.

Ma Arak Na is a member of the Union who helps hide Hae-Joo and Sonmi from the corpocracy.

Hal Brodie is Luisa Rey’s ex-boyfriend. Ever since they broke up, Judith Rey has been trying to set Luisa up with new men.

Mr. Wagstaff is a racist white man who shows Adam Ewing around a British colony on a Pacific island that the Prophetess stops at on the way to Hawaii.

Verplancke is a man who visits Robert Frobisher shortly before Robert’s suicide and sees a preview of his most famous composition, the Cloud Atlas Sextet.