Thomas Sutpen's Father
Character Key Number:
83
Display Name:
Thomas Sutpen's Father
Sort Name:
Sutpen, Father of Thomas
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?:
No
Biography:
Sutpen's father moves back to coastal Virginia after his wife's death, where he works ("or maybe supposes" to work, 185) on a large Tidewater plantation. He is characterized in Absalom! mainly by his habitual drunkenness, and his "harsh" belief in "his own worth" and "his own physical prowess" (186) - virtues that he seeks to establish by "whupping" a slave from a neighboring plantation (187).