Reverend Whitfield

Submitted by dotty.dye@asu.edu on Fri, 2014-08-08 02:39
Text: 
As I Lay Dying
Character Key: 
Reverend Whitfield
Display Name: 
Reverend Whitfield
Sort Name: 
Whitfield, Reverend
Race: 
White
Gender: 
Male
Class: 
Lower Class
Rank: 
Secondary
Vitality: 
Alive
Occupation: 
Professional
Specific Job: 
Preacher
First Mentioned: 
Bundren House in As I Lay Dying (Location)
Narrator: 
Stream of Consciousness
Other Texts: 
"Shingles for the Lord"
"Tomorrow"
The Hamlet
Biography: 

Whitfield is the local preacher in Frenchmen’s Bend. According to Cora Tull, "Brother Whitfield [is] a godly man if ever one breathed God's breath" (167). Whitfield himself would agree: the one section he narrates begins by proclaiming how he "emerged victorious" after wrestling with Satan (177), finds himself sustained by "His hand" (God's, that is), and "knows that forgiveness is mine" (178). At the end he takes it as a sign of God's favor that he need not confess his sin to his congregation. Addie loved him. Most readers, however, see him as a self-righteous hypocrite. As a sinner, he is similar to Hawthorne's Arthur Dimmesdale: he has had an affair with Addie and is the biological father of her third son, Jewel.

Note: 
I don’t like relating what happens here in a straightforward plot fashion but without more time to work out demonstrating this aspect of his character I suppose it can be a place holder and changes can be made to improve it.
Individual or Group: 
Individual
Character changes class in this text: 

digyok:node/character/5937