Despereaux is a sickly mouse who always ran temperatures and fainted at loud noises. The moment he was born, he was classified as “different”, because he was born with his eyes open and had large ears. Then, as he grew up, he became more and more different by letting a human touch him and even speak to a human. Despereaux could hear the music which the other mice couldn’t hear and he could read.
He always read the story about a knight and a fair maiden, and he was almost the only person who knew about love. Despereaux is polite as he says words like “pardon” and speaks softly, unlike his brother Furlough. He is dreamy, because when Furlough told him that he was in a lot of trouble with the mouse council, he didn’t seem scared at all and was still talking about love and bravery.
Despite being different, Despereaux also makes an effort to not be a disappointment to his parents and usually conforms and does what he is told to do. His infatuation for Princess Pea made him so lovesick that even when he was sentenced to the dungeon to be eaten by the rats, he was still dreamy about love.
Furlough is the brother of Despereaux. He is a law-abiding mouse, in that he thinks Despereaux should be punished for committing an illegal act, to the extent that he would betray his own brother by telling on him and sending him personally to the dungeon. He is also rude as he says word like “cripes” and “geez” and talks loudly.
Caring Lester is irresponsible because he blames his wife about Despereaux being different. He is uncaring and hard-hearted towards his own son as he feared that Despereaux would “be the end of us all” and so he turned his own son in to the Mouse Council. When the Mouse Council voted on whether Despereaux should be sent to the dungeon, he didn’t vote against his son being sent there. Both Lester and Antoinette never said a word in Despereaux’s defence.
Narcissistic Antoinette is a drama queen, because when Despereaux was being sent to the dungeon, she was making a show in front of the whole mouse community, “executed a flawless faint” and uses a lot of exaggerated expressions when she speaks. She is not a caring mother, because when Despereaux was sent to the dungeon, she wasn’t really that sad and didn’t even try to save him. Antoinette is also very vain and narcissistic because she always puts on a large amount of make-up and right after she had Despereaux, she asked for a mirror to look at herself rather than to look at Desperaux. Both Lester and Antoinette never said a word in Despereaux’s defence.
