Colonel John Sartoris

Text: 
Character Key: 
Display Name: 
Colonel John Sartoris
Sort Name: 
Sartoris, Colonel John
Race: 
White
Gender: 
Male
Class: 
Upper Class
Rank: 
Minor
Vitality: 
Alive
Family: 
Sartoris
Family (new): 
Occupation: 
Armed Forces
Specific Job: 
Confederate Officer
Biography: 

Legendary progenitor of the Sartoris family and one of the central characters in Yoknapatawpha's history, he plays a peripheral role in The Hamlet. According to one of the novel's two versions of Ab's wounded leg, it was Sartoris who shot him "for trying to steal his clay-bank riding stallion during the War" (18), and the two men are juxtaposed when Ratliff says that while the Colonel was "building his railroad," Ab was forced to hide "back in the hills" for his role in the killing of Rosa Millard, the Colonel's mother-in-law (32).

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

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