Governor Henry

Referred to in the script as "GOVERNOR" and addressed, by Gavin, only by his first name - "Henry" (90) - the man who meets with Gavin and Temple in Act II to hear an informal appeal on behalf of Nancy is referred to as "the last, the ultimate seat of judgment" (89). In the stage directions he is identified not with Mississippi but with a "mythical" State, "the State of which Yoknapatawpha County is a unit" (89) - though elsewhere in the novel there is no ambiguity about the literary 'fact' that Yoknapatawpha is in Mississippi. The Governor has "obviously just been routed out of bed or at least out of his study or dressing room" (90). He listens sympathetically as Temple Drake confesses her complicity in the events in Memphis years earlier and more recently in Jefferson, but makes it clear that he can do nothing to stay the execution.