History Characters / Fingersmith

* {{Nephewism}}: He's Maud's blood uncle, and has raised her since she was eleven (and had custody of her since her mother's death).

[[quoteright:244:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fingersmith_8472.jpg]]

* NeatFreak: Maud shows shades of this, particularly with her gloves, to the point of throwing a pair into the fire when she's gotten egg on them, staining them yellow in places. [[spoiler: Could be a variant of OutDamnedSpot based on her plan to betray Sue.]]

* BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler: With Maud, whom Sue believed to be sweet and innocent, but proved willing to betray Sue for her own ends.]]
** Later prove to be somewhat RebuiltPedestal, as Maud is willing to let Sue hate her to protect her from the truth, and offers her fortune freely to Sue, who she feels it belongs to.
** Additionally with [[spoiler: Mrs. Sucksby, who Sue treasures like a mother, but who betrays her for Maud's sake.]] ''Also'' becomes RebuiltPedestal when [[spoiler: Mrs. Sucksby takes the blame for Gentleman's murder so Maud can go free.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Sue set Maud up to be robbed and committed, but [[spoiler: Sue ends up being committed in Maud's place, and the backstory she used to cover her tracks being used as proof of her madness.]]

* InsultBackfire: Sue repeatedly refers to Maud as a "pigeon", mocking her for how easily she's fooled by tricksters. Comes back to bite Sue when [[spoiler: it turns out ''she'' was the pigeon, and has been fooled by Maud and Gentleman.]]

* SlidingScaleOfParentShamingInFiction: Type III. Even outside [[spoiler: threatening Maud with a knife, and making her read obscene literature to strange adult men]], he tolerated or instructed the way his servants treated her, from [[spoiler: hitting her to locking her in a freezer to 'teach her a lesson'.]]

* MoralDilemma: In contrast to Sue, who never seriously considers averting her ploy to ruin Maud, Maud [[spoiler: seems to have at least occasional qualms about locking Sue up in an asylum for the rest of her life under false pretenses.]]

* AntiVillain: Sue enters into Maud's life to defraud her of her fortune and make off with a chunk of it, but over the course of the plot becomes increasingly sympathetic to Maud, even telling the doctors who've come to take Maud away to a mental institution that "she don't like eggs".

* CaughtInTheRain: Subverted. Out on a walk, Maud and Sue seek shelter from the rain under the eaves of the old chapel, but nothing romantic happens--instead, Sue realizes that [[spoiler: far from being in love with Gentleman, Maud is terrified of him]], but, remembering ThePlan, urges her Maud to marry Gentleman anyway.

* DrugsAreBad: Maud uses what is presumably some sort of opiate to sleep and calm herself. Her dependence seems to grow throughout the novel, and both Sue and Gentleman jab at her use of "her drops".

* [[spoiler: FakeMark: Maud presents a juicy target for Sue and Gentleman: A wealthy, sheltered girl under the care of a relative, with no living parents, who seems already infatuated with Gentleman. It's only later that Sue finds out Maud was part of the plan all along and she--Sue--was the target.]]