Character Analysis
Dolly is, for lack of a better word, kind of a bimbo. She's Charles's wife, and that's basically her entire role, both in life and in this novel. She's rather sweet and foolish, and is constantly putting her foot in her mouth. By the end of the novel, she's obviously had to grow up a little, what with Charles in prison and all, but she's still a total ditz; it's her unwitting slip of the tongue that lets Margaret know that Mrs. Wilcox gave her Howards End in the first place. Dolly might be seen as a figure for a super-conventional, silly young woman – a kind of foil to the non-silly young women of the Schlegel family.