Absalom, Absalom! (Plot Summary)

Plot Summary

The Main Story

The story of Thomas Sutpen is told by four different narrators during the course of Absalom, Absalom! First, Rosa Coldfield tells the story, then subsequent versions reveal added elements of Sutpen's story.

Thomas Sutpen arrives in Jefferson, Mississippi, in 1833. An enigmatic figure, he never reveals much about his past or his reasons for choosing Jefferson as the site for his home. He comes with a group of "wild" slaves (presumably from Haiti), a French architect, and construction tools. Rumors abound about the mysterious Sutpen, and two years later, his plantation home is complete but empty. Sutpen's relationship with the community becomes friendlier when he begins inviting the men to come stay and hunt on his land. Nestled on one hundred square miles of land that he cheated out of a Native American, the estate is named Sutpen's Hundred.

Sutpen enjoys violent wrestling with his slaves. This sport, like his ambition to execute his great design for a plantation, indicates his drive to control and tame that which he perceives as wild. To everyone's surprise, he asks for Ellen Coldfield's hand in marriage. The Coldfields are a respectable family in Jefferson but have little money and are known for being righteous. Sutpen makes an arrangement (the details of which are never revealed to the reader) with Mr. Coldfield, and Sutpen and Ellen are married. They have two children, Henry and Judith.

Once married, Sutpen makes no effort to gain the community's approval. He does not attend church and continues to wrestle with his slaves. On one occasion, Ellen discovers, to her horror, that Sutpen has brought Henry to the stable to watch the wrestling, which the boy finds frightening and sickening. In contrast, Judith secretly watches the wrestling and is unfazed by the violence.

As a young man, Henry attends law school at the University of Mississippi where he becomes great friends with Charles Bon. Henry brings Charles home with him for a visit, and Charles and Judith fall in love. Despite Sutpen's objections to the union, the couple plans to marry. Their plans are interrupted by the Civil War because Charles, Sutpen, and Henry must all go and fight.

The men in Sutpen's unit lose faith in their commander and choose Sutpen as their new leader. Meanwhile, Henry and Charles fight together, cementing their bond. Henry and Charles discover that they are half-brothers. Before coming to Jefferson, Sutpen had lived in Haiti, where he married a woman and had a son. When Sutpen learned that his wife had black ancestry, he disowned her and his son and left Haiti. Years later, the son, Charles, enrolled as a student at the University of Mississippi. With this information, Henry insists that Charles tell him what he plans to do about his engagement to Judith. Charles will not say, and when the war is over, Charles and Henry return to Sutpen's Hundred. As they come in sight of the house, Henry tells Charles that he cannot marry Judith. When Charles responds nastily that he will marry her, Henry kills him on the spot and then flees.

Sutpen returns from the war to an overgrown estate where his buildings are in shambles, his slaves are all gone, and his wife is dead. Although he plans to marry Ellen's much younger sister, Rosa, when she realizes that he expects her to produce a son before the marriage, she refuses. Sutpen then seduces Milly, the teenaged granddaughter of Wash Jones, a poor man living on his land. She becomes pregnant, but when she has a girl instead of a boy (which Sutpen needs to create a dynasty), he becomes cruel toward Milly. Even though Wash has always admired Sutpen, he kills him for mistreating his granddaughter.

When Henry returns to Sutpen's Hundred years later, he stays in the abandoned estate with his sister and Clytie, the illegitimate daughter of Sutpen and one of his slaves. When Clytie thinks that the law is coming to capture Henry for murdering Charles, she sets fire to the house, destroying it and killing Henry and herself.

Characteristics of Rosa's Version

Rosa is the only narrator who lived during the events of the story. Still, her recollection is filtered through forty years of bitterness and hatred toward Sutpen. She refers to Sutpen as a demon, a djinn (similar to a genie), and a fiend. Her version of the story has an accusatory tone, and she blames Sutpen for all the miseries of the Coldfields. Further, she interprets the fall of the South as being the result of the influence of men like Sutpen.

In chapter five, the reader comes to understand why Rosa accepted Sutpen's marriage proposal. As a young woman, she was optimistic and perhaps romantic. Not knowing Sutpen very well, she thought of him as a mysterious, dashing, and intriguing man. When he crudely proposed to her and then abandoned her, she lost her innocence and op-timism in the heartbreak. The reader may assume either that it was after this point that she began to hate him or that she disliked him all along but had no other marriage prospects.

Because Rosa hardly knew Sutpen, she speculates on his motivations. When Sutpen opposes the marriage plans between Judith and Charles, for example, Rosa believes he does so on a cruel whim. Faulkner never gives any indication that Rosa knows anything of Charles' background or lineage. It is, therefore, ironic when she refers to Henry's murder of Charles as being almost fratricide (because they were almost brothers-in-law), when in fact, it was fratricide.

Characteristics of Mr. Compson's Version

Mr. Compson's father was one of the first men in Jefferson to accept Sutpen, so this version is sympathetic toward Sutpen. Compson describes Sutpen as brave, strong, determined, and individualistic. Compson finds it difficult, therefore, to understand why Rosa is so harsh in her denouncement of Sutpen.

Compson's version of the story introduces speculation regarding Henry's relationships with his sister and with Charles. Compson's account suggests that Henry had feelings for his sister that were beyond normal sibling affection. Although he does not say that Henry had incestuous desires, he implies it. Compson also seems to suggest that Henry had an unusual attraction to Charles. According to Compson, while Henry initially supported the marriage of Judith and Charles as a way to resolve his yearnings, his realization that Charles was partly black and his half-brother prevented Henry from allowing the union to take place.

Characteristics of Quentin's Version

Quentin is preoccupied with the Sutpen story as he attempts to make sense of his own past and better understand his role in the present. He has heard the story so many times that he feels like "a barracks filled with stubborn back-looking ghosts." Quentin's version contains some details of the story missing from the other versions. The reader later learns that Quentin's grandfather told Quentin things about the story that he had not told his own son (Mr. Compson).

When Quentin's roommate Shreve asks about the South, Quentin begins telling the Sutpen story. Although the story took place before Quentin's time in Jefferson, he feels a strong connection to the story and is compelled to uncover its meaning for his own life.

Characteristics of Shreve's Version

Shreve is introduced in chapter six and asks to hear about the South. As the chapter progresses, it becomes clear that Quentin has told Shreve the Sutpen story before. Shreve knows many of the events of the story but serves as sort of a spokesperson for the reader, asking questions the reader would like to ask. Because he is the furthest removed from the story, Shreve brings an objective view of the story to the novel and is in a position to question certain aspects of the narrative.