Unnamed Sheriff 11

Character Key Number: 
477
Display Name: 
Unnamed Sheriff 11
Sort Name: 
Unnamed Sheriff 11
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?: 
Yes
Biography: 

The unnamed county sheriff who appears in "A Point of Law" is not described in any detail. In the companion short story "Gold Is Not Always," the sheriff is only mentioned. When Faulkner combined these stories into the chapter in Go Down, Moses called "The Fire and the Hearth," he describes the sheriff who plays the same roles as "a tremendous man, fat" (62). We assume these are all the same character in Faulkner's imagination. On the other hand, there are two other 'sheriff's in the novel: Sheriff Maydew in "Pantaloon in Black" and a second unnamed one in "Go Down, Moses." They are essentially contemporaneous, but the text does not suggest any connection between any of these three - so we have created three separate "Sheriff" entries.