Horace Benbow

Character Key: 
Display Name: 
Horace Benbow
Sort Name: 
Benbow, Horace
AKA: 
Horry
Race: 
White
Gender: 
Male
Class: 
Upper Class
Rank: 
Major
Vitality: 
Alive
Family: 
Benbow
Family (new): 
Occupation: 
Professional
Specific Job: 
Lawyer
Date of Birth: 
Saturday, January 1, 1887 to Sunday, December 31, 1893
Origin: 
Yoknapatawpha
Biography: 

The last male descendant of the aristocratic Benbow family, Horace served as a noncombatant with the YMCA during World War I. Like his father he is a lawyer. His passion for glass blowing identifies him as an artist-figure, albeit a hapless one.  Like Quentin Compson, he is characterized by his idealism and his ineffectuality, and he is often depicted at the mercy of women: his sister Narcissa, his mistress and eventual wife Belle, and even Belle's sister, Joan, with whom he has a very brief affair. By the end of the novel he and Belle have moved to a new town some distance from Jefferson, where Horace feels very much in exile; he returns to Jefferson as the central character in Sanctuary (1931).

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

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