Mr. John Pounds is the master of Ensor House and the novel’s primary antagonist. He is a foil to Winifred, representing the established, hypocritical power structure that she seeks to join through the recognition of her parentage, but ends up dismantling in retaliation. He is a round and static character, embodying the worst traits of the Victorian patriarchy: He is arrogant, cruel, intellectually fraudulent, and obsessed with his own status and authority. As Winifred’s biological father, he is the literal and symbolic source of the novel’s central conflict. His treatment of his family is tyrannical; he emotionally abuses his wife, terrorizes his daughter Drusilla by shooting a locket from her hand as a parlor trick, and views his son Andrew merely as an heir to carry on his name. This behavior showcases the domestic cruelty that underpins the outwardly respectable facade of the upper class.

Mr. Pounds is the main vehicle for the novel’s satire of The Absurdity of Class Superiority. His devotion to the pseudoscience of phrenology is his most defining characteristic. He uses his craniometer to measure skulls, believing he can scientifically prove his own moral and intellectual supremacy while justifying his prejudices against others. This obsession is deeply ironic, as he is completely oblivious to Winifred’s true nature, even when he declares that they “possess the very same skull!” (79). This failure highlights the fraudulent basis of his authority and the inability of his rigid, patriarchal worldview to comprehend Winifred’s true intentions. His hypocrisy is also evident in his professional life; he publicly supports the Factory Act, which is meant to protect child laborers, while having previously profited from the deaths of children in his own mills. He is a man built on a foundation of self-serving lies, and Winifred, the unacknowledged product of his own past sins, becomes his undoing. When Winifred reveals their relation, Mr. Pounds immediately rejects her because he cannot accept the implications of their relationship on his life. After Winifred has killed most of the people at Ensor House, including his family, Mr. Pounds tries to placate her by recognizing Winifred in favor of Drusilla, making it all too obvious that his only desire is to survive.

Mrs. Pounds is a secondary antagonist in the novel and the mistress of Ensor House. She is a flat, static character driven by insecurity, vanity, and a desperate need to maintain her social standing. While she is cruel to those beneath her, particularly Winifred, her character is also presented as a product of the oppressive patriarchal system she inhabits. Her power within the household is secondary to her husband’s, and she exercises her limited authority through petty acts of sadism, such as forcing Winifred to sleep in the dog kennel when she suspects her of breaking a minor house rule. Her obsession with her appearance and the fear of being perceived as ugly or old are her primary motivations, leading her to use belladonna drops to widen her pupils and constantly police the behavior of her daughter, Drusilla.

Mrs. Pounds embodies the toxic superficiality of her class. Her gift of the arsenic-green dress to Winifred is a key moment of characterization. Knowing the pigment is rumored to be poisonous, she offers the dress as a backhanded compliment, a gesture that is simultaneously a display of wealth and a potential death sentence. This act connects her to the lethal aesthetics of the era and emphasizes her moral emptiness. Her role is that of a woman who has so fully internalized the values of a patriarchal society that she becomes an agent of its cruelty, perpetuating the cycle of oppression against other women rather than challenging the system that confines her. Her eventual death at Winifred’s hands is swift and unceremonious, reflecting her ultimate insignificance in the face of the chaotic violence she helped to nurture.

Drusilla Pounds is the daughter of the Pounds family and the novel’s deuteragonist. She begins the story as a flat character, defined by her sullen demeanor and conventional aspirations for a wealthy marriage. However, Drusilla proves to be a round and dynamic character who undergoes a significant transformation. Initially, she is a passive victim of her parents’ whims and the restrictive expectations placed on young women of her class. She is observant and intelligent, quietly absorbing the hypocrisy and cruelty of her environment, from her father’s violent displays of power to her mother’s vanity. Drusilla tries to enact the class expectations of her life by pursuing a romance with Gotthard Johnson, the painter who is commissioned to create a portrait of Mrs. Pounds. Drusilla’s naivete makes her oblivious to the fact that Johnson is only using the relation between him and their family (which includes attempting to seduce her) in order to advance his career. Though Johnson rejects Drusilla over her aggressive forms of affection, Drusilla remains devoted to Johnson, discreetly keeping a locket that contains his likeness on her person.

Drusilla’s turning point comes after the public humiliation of the locket incident, where her father shoots the memento of her suitor out of her hand. This event shatters any remaining illusions about her family’s affection and aligns her interests with Winifred’s. She evolves from a privileged member of the household into the cunning accomplice of her sole confidant. Her final act of plunging a rapier into her father’s heart is the culmination of her development, as she seizes agency through the very violence she has witnessed. By later feigning survival and blaming Winifred for the entire massacre, Drusilla demonstrates that she has learned the ultimate lesson of Ensor House: survival through ruthless manipulation. She ends the novel as a new and more refined predator than Winifred, ensuring the cycle of violence continues.

Andrew Pounds is the son and heir of the Pounds family. He is a flat and static minor character who is a representation of unearned male privilege and inherited cruelty. As the “sole male heir” (39), he is spoiled by his parents and behaves with an arrogance that mimics his father’s, though it lacks any pretense of intellectual justification. Andrew’s cruelty is simple and brutish; he delights in tormenting his sister, servants, and animals. He embodies the future of the corrupt patriarchy, a lineage defined by entitlement and a casual disregard for others. Winifred recognizes him as a nascent tyrant, and his murder is a symbolic act of cutting off this toxic legacy at its root.

Sue Lamb is a young housemaid at Ensor House and a minor character whose symbolic role outweighs her brief appearance. Her name itself marks her as a sacrificial figure. She is depicted as cheerful, innocent, and kind, representing a purity that stands in stark contrast to the depravity of the estate’s inhabitants. 

Winifred is initially drawn to Sue as a romantic interest. However, when Sue rejects Winifred’s predatory advance and threatens to expose her, Winifred murders her impulsively. Sue’s death is a key moment, marking a shift in Winifred’s violence from a calculated response to her environment to a more purely instinctual and defensive act. She is an innocent victim whose destruction highlights the impossibility of goodness surviving in the toxic world of Ensor House.