Thomas Sutpen
Encyclopedia
Thomas Sutpen is the focal character of William Faulkner
's 1936 novel Absalom, Absalom!
Sutpen arrives in Faulkner's imaginary Yoknapatawpha County
in Mississippi in the 1830s and established a 100 square mile (260 km²) plantation, Sutpen's Hundred, in an attempt to create his own personal dynasty. It is eventually revealed that Sutpen was born to a poor white family in what becomes West Virginia before moving to the Tidewater region of Virginia where he was first privy to the aristocratic plantation culture of the Antebellum South.
When he was fourteen, he was instructed by a black servant to only use the back door of a plantation when running errands for his father. This led him to renounce his family and social position. He travelled to the West Indies to build his own plantation and start a lineage, in accordance with his "design". The discovery that his wife was part-black, hence making his son Charles Bon part black, caused him to relocate to Yoknapatawpha County and build a new plantation. The sins of his past and indiscriminate sexual practices eventually caused the downfall of his empire by the early 20th century.
The short story "Wash", which was later incorporated into the seventh chapter of Absalom, Absalom!
, focuses on the death of Thomas Sutpen.
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
's 1936 novel Absalom, Absalom!
Absalom, Absalom!
Absalom, Absalom! is a Southern Gothic novel by the American author William Faulkner, first published in 1936. It is a story about three families of the American South, taking place before, during, and after the Civil War, with the focus of the story on the life of Thomas Sutpen.-Plot...
Sutpen arrives in Faulkner's imaginary Yoknapatawpha County
Yoknapatawpha County
Yoknapatawpha County is a fictional county created by the American author William Faulkner, based upon and inspired by Lafayette County, Mississippi and its county seat of Oxford, Mississippi...
in Mississippi in the 1830s and established a 100 square mile (260 km²) plantation, Sutpen's Hundred, in an attempt to create his own personal dynasty. It is eventually revealed that Sutpen was born to a poor white family in what becomes West Virginia before moving to the Tidewater region of Virginia where he was first privy to the aristocratic plantation culture of the Antebellum South.
When he was fourteen, he was instructed by a black servant to only use the back door of a plantation when running errands for his father. This led him to renounce his family and social position. He travelled to the West Indies to build his own plantation and start a lineage, in accordance with his "design". The discovery that his wife was part-black, hence making his son Charles Bon part black, caused him to relocate to Yoknapatawpha County and build a new plantation. The sins of his past and indiscriminate sexual practices eventually caused the downfall of his empire by the early 20th century.
The short story "Wash", which was later incorporated into the seventh chapter of Absalom, Absalom!
Absalom, Absalom!
Absalom, Absalom! is a Southern Gothic novel by the American author William Faulkner, first published in 1936. It is a story about three families of the American South, taking place before, during, and after the Civil War, with the focus of the story on the life of Thomas Sutpen.-Plot...
, focuses on the death of Thomas Sutpen.