Aunt Jenny

Character Key: 
Display Name: 
Aunt Jenny
Sort Name: 
Du Pre, Jenny
AKA: 
Virginia Du Pre
Genevieve Du Pre
Virginia Depre
Race: 
White
Gender: 
Female
Class: 
Upper Class
Rank: 
Secondary
Vitality: 
Alive
Family: 
Sartoris
Family (new): 
Date of Birth: 
Tuesday, January 1, 1839 to Thursday, December 31, 1840
Biography: 

In the last chapter of The Unvanquished, Faulkner introduces Aunt Jenny - actually, reintroduces her, since she is a prominent figure in several earlier other Yoknapatawpha stories and novels. After her husband is killed during the Civil War, she makes her way from the Carolinas to live with her older brother, John Sartoris. Her eyes are the same as her brother's "except that they were intent and wise instead of intolerant" (236). She is the only rational person during the hours after her brother was murdered and tries to talk Bayard out of avenging his death. As in the story "There Was a Queen," Aunt Jenny is associated with the garden at the Sartoris plantation and grows many ornamental flowers such as verbena and jasmine which she brought to her brother's house in a "hamper basket" from Carolina (235).

Individual or Group: 
Individual
Character changes class in this text: 

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