Absalom, Absalom! Characters

Thomas Sutpen's DesignThe Thomas Sutpen we come to know in Absalom, Absalom! only exists in the fragmented memories of the narrators: he is long dead when the story begins. But because our narrator...

Father and SonCharles Bon is the bane of Sutpen's existence. Oh, and he's also his son. As Sutpen tells it, he was tricked into his first marriage, believing that his wife was Spanish rather than p...

Miss Rosa Coldfield – Ellen Coldfield's younger sister by 27 years – is a character full of desire, envy, and longing (Faulkner more eloquently calls it "impotent and static rage" [1.1]). She i...

A Rebellious RomanticHenry Sutpen might seem like the ultimate renegade son: he repudiates his birthright (i.e. disowns his father) and leaves Sutpen's Hundred with Charles Bon in an act of rebelli...

Quentin is a pretty ambiguous character in Absalom, Absalom! All he really does is tell a story. But check him out in The Sound and the Fury where he gets a much deeper characterization: yep, it's...

Judith is a shallow but headstrong woman. She loves the trappings of wealth and the power she gets from being the daughter of Thomas Sutpen. Really, can we blame her? But as willful as she is, her...

Oh, Shreve. Feisty, feisty Shreve. Quentin's roommate at Harvard, this guy – while a little grating – is pretty important. Why? Because he's from the North (Canada). What's that we say? The Nor...

Guess what? We've got another narrator for you. Mr. Compson is Quentin's father and General Compson's son: he's basically the link between the real story and the weird guessing-game version we have...

Clytie doesn't seem like too much of a player for most of the book, but in the end, she's the one who – spoiler alert! – takes down Sutpen's Hundred. For good.This woman is Henry and Judith's h...

Eulalia Bon SutpenWhat glorious being spawned Charles Bon? This is your lady right here. Eulalia is Sutpen's first wife, whom he meets in Haiti while he was an overseer at a sugar plantation. After...