Ada Clare

Ada Clare arrives at Bleak House as one of the two young wards caught up in the endless Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit, orphaned and dependent on the kindness of her guardian. Gentle, trusting, and quietly devoted to her cousin Richard, she wants only a settled home and a happy future, and takes the world's affection for granted because she has known so little unkindness.

Mulligan plays Ada's sweetness without ever letting it curdle into blankness; there's real feeling under the softness, especially in her scenes with Richard, where hope and worry flicker across her face at once. The part is small beside Esther's, but Mulligan makes Ada's innocence feel like a held breath rather than a given.