Elly

Text: 
Character Key: 
Display Name: 
Elly
Sort Name: 
Elly
AKA: 
Ailanthia II
Race: 
White
Gender: 
Female
Class: 
Upper Class
Rank: 
Major
Vitality: 
Alive
Date of Birth: 
Friday, January 1, 1915 to Friday, December 31, 1915
Origin: 
Jefferson
Biography: 

Eighteen years old, Elly "lives in Jefferson . . . with her father and mother and grandmother in a biggish house" (208). Elly has inherited her given name, Ailanthia, from her grandmother, a link that Faulkner uses to underscore the tension between the two generations. Elly expresses herself largely through her physicality, first using her youthful sexuality to attract suitors, and then later climbing the stairs "with the tread almost of an old woman" when she is burdened by her grandmother's censure (208). She is able to "change completely" (208), depending on her mood and her company. She is injured, but apparently not fatally, in the accident she causes.

Social Status: 
has influential social contacts (family, business, political)
Individual or Group: 
Individual
Character changes class in this text: 

digyok:node/character/13430