The Digital Yoknapatawpha Project

Monk's court-appointed defense attorney is very inexperienced. Recently admitted to the bar, he "probably knew but little more about the practical functioning of criminal law than Monk did." Most notably, he neglects to enter a plea of mental incompetence, because either he "forgot" or "pleaded Monk guilty at the direction of the Court" (42).

The young district attorney who prosecutes Monk at his murder trial cares more about his conviction rate than justice. The narrator calls attention to his ambitiousness, stating that he "had his eye on Congress" (41).

In "Monk," the mentally challenged title character is a mystery. Initially known only as "Monk," the narrator characterizes him as a "moron, perhaps even a cretin" (41), language offensive to modern readers but common and acceptable during the era of the story's composition. Near the end readers learn that his given name is actually Stonewall Jackson Odlethrop - though it is not clear exactly who gave him any of these names. He is born in the hill country east of Jefferson, presumably the unwanted child of Mrs. Odelethrop's son and a "hard" woman from somewhere else (43).

Although the narrator of "Monk" is never named in the text, he is undoubtedly Charles Mallison, more commonly known as "Chick," who also narrates two other Knight's Gambit stories, as well as much of The Town (1957) and The Mansion (1959). The narrator refers to Stevens as "my Uncle Gavin" (48), and Gavin Stevens only has one nephew throughout Faulkner's body of work.

Ad is the cook at Major de Spain's hunting camp and an aide-de-camp to Major de Spain and the others in the hunt for Old Ben. He, like Boon, has high regard for the dog Lion, and the two men (possibly about the same age) compete for the dog's company. Ad observes and reports on Lion's and Boon's confrontation with Old Ben, and mourns the incomparable dog: "Ad stood in the door too, as Boon had done, with the tears running down his face too" (186).

Major de Spain here is the owner of the wilderness area in which most of "Lion" takes place, having bought the land and the camp on it from Thomas Sutpen. As the leader of the annual hunt on that land, he is a clear-sighted and disciplined hunter who sets the standards and the "orders of the day" for the other men at the camp, until after the final running of the bear, Old Ben, ends the pleasures of the wilderness experience for him. In Jefferson, he is a banker and community leader.