Persis Lapham
E389209
Persis Lapham is a central figure in William Dean Howells’s realist novel "The Rise of Silas Lapham," depicted as the morally grounded wife who provides emotional and ethical balance to her ambitious husband.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Persis Lapham canonical | 7 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1842826 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Persis Lapham Context triple: [The Rise of Silas Lapham, mainCharacter, Persis Lapham]
-
A.
Phyllis Ames
Phyllis Ames was the wife of Archibald Cox, the prominent American lawyer and Watergate special prosecutor.
-
B.
Elizabeth Wendell
Elizabeth Wendell was a colonial-era New England woman best known as the mother of Dorothy Quincy, who became the wife of American Founding Father John Hancock.
-
C.
Edith Cushing
Edith Cushing is the aspiring young American author and protagonist of Guillermo del Toro’s Gothic romance film "Crimson Peak," whose curiosity and independence draw her into a haunted English manor filled with dark family secrets.
-
D.
Martha Hunt
Martha Hunt is an American fashion model best known for her work with Victoria’s Secret, including serving as a Victoria’s Secret Angel.
-
E.
Marian McAlpin
Marian McAlpin is the conflicted young protagonist of Margaret Atwood’s novel "The Edible Woman," whose growing aversion to food mirrors her anxiety about identity, gender roles, and societal expectations.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Persis Lapham Target entity description: Persis Lapham is a central figure in William Dean Howells’s realist novel "The Rise of Silas Lapham," depicted as the morally grounded wife who provides emotional and ethical balance to her ambitious husband.
-
A.
Phyllis Ames
Phyllis Ames was the wife of Archibald Cox, the prominent American lawyer and Watergate special prosecutor.
-
B.
Elizabeth Wendell
Elizabeth Wendell was a colonial-era New England woman best known as the mother of Dorothy Quincy, who became the wife of American Founding Father John Hancock.
-
C.
Edith Cushing
Edith Cushing is the aspiring young American author and protagonist of Guillermo del Toro’s Gothic romance film "Crimson Peak," whose curiosity and independence draw her into a haunted English manor filled with dark family secrets.
-
D.
Martha Hunt
Martha Hunt is an American fashion model best known for her work with Victoria’s Secret, including serving as a Victoria’s Secret Angel.
-
E.
Marian McAlpin
Marian McAlpin is the conflicted young protagonist of Margaret Atwood’s novel "The Edible Woman," whose growing aversion to food mirrors her anxiety about identity, gender roles, and societal expectations.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (30)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
fictional character
ⓘ
literary character ⓘ |
| appearsIn | The Rise of Silas Lapham ⓘ |
| characterTrait |
ethical
ⓘ
morally grounded ⓘ practical ⓘ supportive ⓘ |
| createdBy | William Dean Howells ⓘ |
| embodies |
domestic virtue
ⓘ
middle-class moral values ⓘ |
| familyRole |
mother
ⓘ
wife ⓘ |
| gender | female ⓘ |
| languageOfWork | English ⓘ |
| literaryMovement |
American realism
ⓘ
linked to:
Realism
|
| medium | novel ⓘ |
| moralFunctionInNarrative | moral conscience of the Lapham family ⓘ |
| name | Persis Lapham ⓘ |
| nationalityInFiction | American ⓘ |
| parentOf |
Irene Lapham
ⓘ
Penelope Lapham ⓘ |
| provides |
emotional balance to Silas Lapham
ⓘ
ethical balance to Silas Lapham ⓘ |
| publicationContext |
The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885)
ⓘ
linked to:
The Rise of Silas Lapham
|
| roleInWork | central figure ⓘ |
| settingOfLife | Boston ⓘ |
| spouseOf | Silas Lapham ⓘ |
| supports |
Silas Lapham during his business rise
ⓘ
Silas Lapham during his financial decline ⓘ |
| timePeriodInFiction | late 19th century ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Persis Lapham Description of subject: Persis Lapham is a central figure in William Dean Howells’s realist novel "The Rise of Silas Lapham," depicted as the morally grounded wife who provides emotional and ethical balance to her ambitious husband.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.