The Digital Yoknapatawpha Project

Charles Mallison, Sr., sometimes called "Charley" in the novel, is husband to Margaret Mallison, brother-in-law of Gavin Stevens, and father of Chick Mallison. A conventional businessman of his time and place, he owns a livery stable and is initially opposed to and resentful of those who purchase automobiles. A well-read and clever man, he enjoys lively exchanges with his wife, and he often teases his brother-in-law about Gavin's infatuation with Eula Snopes. His role in the life and education of his son is secondary to "Uncle Gavin"'s.

Twin sister of Gavin Stevens and mother of Chick Mallison, Maggie is married to Charley Mallison. Lively, articulate, and energetic in her several roles as wife, mother, and twin sister, she is also intelligent and humorous and at base a kind person, as we see when young Linda Snopes comes to her home for Sunday dinner. As a prominent member of Jefferson society, she willingly aids her brother in his determination to have Eula Snopes accepted by the ladies of the town. She also has a clear vision of her fellow Jeffersonians.

Gowan Stevens' mother accompanies her husband for the duration of his State Department assignment to "some far place," which explains why her son Gowan came to Jefferson (3).

Gowan Stevens' father works for the State Department. When he is assigned to "China or India or some far place" (3), he sends his son to Jefferson to stay with his Stevens cousins.

Judge Lemuel Stevens is the patriarch of the family that includes his son, Gavin Stevens; daughter, Maggie; her husband, Charlie Mallison; and their son, Chick. "Grandfather" is the patriarch in the Stevens household until his death "in the last year of the war" (119) - i.e. World War I, so 1918. When Gavin sues Manfred de Spain to disrupt Manfred's affair with Eula Snopes, Judge Stevens says to his son, "'So you dont want him not to be mayor . . . Then what is it you do want? for him not to be alive? Is that it?'" (104).

Gavin Stevens is one of the three major narrators of The Town - and, given the amount of time the other two narrators spend describing his behavior and opinions, probably its central character. He is the son of Judge Lemuel Stevens, twin brother of Margaret Mallison, and uncle of Chick Mallison. He is Yoknapatawpha's most educated inhabitant, with degrees from Harvard, Heidelberg and the University of Mississippi.

Concerning "Cousin Gowan," Charles Mallison says, "his grandfather was Grandfather's brother . . . he just called all of us except Grandfather 'cousin' and all of us except Grandfather called him 'cousin'" (3). He returns to Jefferson to live with the Mallisons while his parents are abroad, and while living there becomes part of Gavin Stevens and V.K. Ratliff's unofficial campaign against Snopesism. Later he is the reliable source for much of what Charles himself narrates about the early years of that campaign, since Charles, as he says in the novel's first words, "wasn't born yet" (3).

Charles Mallison, Jr., is his birth name, Charles Mallison is the name at the top of all the chapters he narrates in The Town, but readers of the Yoknapatawpha fictions probably know him best by his nickname - Chick - which is what his uncle Gavin and V.K. Ratliff, the novel's other two narrators, generally call him. He is the youngest member of one of the oldest and most prominent Jefferson families. Although he was not born when the events of the narrative begin, Charles narrates 10 of the novel's 24 chapters, including the first and the last.

Gavin Stevens is one of Faulkner's favorite characters. A Harvard graduate, he chooses to stay close to home, serving as the County Attorney for Yoknapatawpha in several of Faulkner's texts. In this story, as in the other stories in Knight's Gambit, he acts as both amateur detective and crusader, helping the sheriff solve the mysteries of Ellie Flint's death and Joel Flint's identity. As he tells the sheriff, he's "interested in justice and human beings" (115).

This unnamed deputy accompanies the sheriff to investigate the initial call from Joel Flint about his wife's death. He may or may not be the same as one of the named deputies in the story.