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Chapter 7
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Absalom, Absalom!, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Storytelling, Perspective, and Truth
The South
The Limits of Ambition
Social Taboos, Racism, and Inherited Trauma
Summary
Analysis
Quentin and Shreve sit in a college sitting room. Shreve continues to make sense of Quentin’s story. He speculates that Sutpen sent for Henry and told him that Judith and Bon couldn’t marry because Bon was their brother, and Henry instantly replied, “You lie.” Though from the grave expression on Sutpen’s face, Shreve guesses, Henry would have known that Sutpen was telling him the truth. As Quentin and Shreve retell Sutpen’s story, it’s as though they’re transported from their New England college to the Mississippi library where Sutpen first disclosed the truth about Bon to Henry.
Sutpen’s death and Wash Jones’s motive for killing him are fairly straightforward, so Quentin and Shreve redirect their attention to parts of the story where conflicting accounts leave room for ambiguity. They’re determined to arrive at some semblance of the truth about why Henry turned on Bon. Shreve proposes a hypothetical situation where Sutpen tells Henry that Bon is his brother and that’s why Henry turns on Bon. The rather surreal description of Quentin and Shreve being transported back in time to the library at Sutpen’s Hundred where this hypothetical fight takes place illustrates the transformative potential of narrative.
Themes
Quentin and Shreve continue to debate what must have happened in the library that day. Shreve says that it wasn’t just the fact that Bon was Henry and Judith’s brother that Sutpen disclosed to Henry—Sutpen also told Henry that Bon knew about this all along. Shreve thinks that Bon’s mother in New Orleans must have been bitter about Sutpen’s abandonment and begun grooming Bon to take revenge on Sutpen for years, waiting for just the right moment to get even with Sutpen. They imagine her hiring a lawyer to track Sutpen’s every movement and business transaction, waiting until Sutpen had amassed a suitable amount of wealth to put her plan into action. Meanwhile, they imagine that Bon spends all the money his mother receives from Sutpen “on his whores and his champagne,” and on fine clothing.
Shreve proposes yet another interpretation: Sutpen did tell Henry that Bon was his brother—but claimed that Bon wasn’t aware of this fact. In Shreve’s version of events, Bon’s mother is the architect of Sutpen’s demise, throwing her unwitting son to the wolves to get back at Sutpen for abandoning them. As the novel progresses, characters’ speculations get more and more outlandish. Shreve’s imagination runs especially wild because he has no personal stake in any of the details he’s speculating on. While Shreve and Quentin portray Bon as hedonistic, as Mr. Compson had in his telling of the story, they’re doing so in an admiring rather than a critical way. Mr. Compson sees Bon as the villain, but Shreve and Quentin see him as a tragic hero of sorts.
Themes
Next Shreve and Quentin imagine how Bon came to attend college. In their retelling, Bon leaves home to attend college in Mississippi at age 28. It’s unclear whether the lawyer or Bon’s mother made this decision for him. Someone—the lawyer or the mother—selected, of all places, the University of Mississippi at Oxford for Bon to attend.
Quentin and Shreve continue to make (seemingly) baseless speculations about how Bon came to Mississippi and made Henry’s acquaintance, reaffirming the story’s overarching point about the difficulty of knowing the truth about history.
Themes
In Shreve and Quentin’s retelling of the story, the lawyer sends a letter to Henry Sutpen, introducing Bon to Henry as the son of a widowed gentlewoman (not as Henry’s brother) in advance of Bon’s arrival in Oxford. Then Quentin and Shreve imagine Bon and Henry’s first meeting. They imagine Henry being enchanted by Bon’s cosmopolitan upbringing. They imagine how, over drinks one night, Henry clumsily lets it slip that if he had a brother, he’d want that brother to be exactly like Bon.
Shreve and Quentin’s retelling of the story portrays Bon in a far more sympathetic light than Mr. Compson’s version—they seem to see Bon as a victim of his mother and the lawyer’s scheming rather than the main instigator of a plot to get back at Sutpen. They also seem to sentimentalize Bon and Henry’s friendship. Meanwhile, their suggestion that Henry could have remarked that he’d want to have a brother like Bon could be seen as an attempt to shift some of the blame for the tragedies to come onto Henry—as though Henry, if only subconsciously, sensed that Bon had deep ties to the family and chose to ignore these thoughts.
Themes
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In the novel’s present, Shreve announces to Quentin that they’re now “going to talk about love.” In Shreve’s telling of the story, he imagines Bon teaching Henry how to lounge around in a dressing gown and slippers, “such as woman wore,” wearing colognes “such as women used, smoking a cigar almost as a woman might smoke it.” Meanwhile, Bon wonders if Henry can see the resemblance between them. Shreve, in the present, ruminates on what Bon wanted from Henry—if he just wanted to influence Henry, or to get rid of him.
Shreve wants to romanticize or dramatize the Sutpen saga more than Quentin, pushing for a version of the story that portrays Henry and Bon’s relationship as more akin to romance than platonic friendship. It’s clear that Shreve sees the Sutpen story as entertainment—he doesn’t associate it with the inherited burden of the South’s history as Quentin does. Bon’s teaching Henry to don feminine clothes and perform feminine behavior becomes a seduction of sorts. This version of the story portrays Bon far less sympathetically than Quentin’s and Shreve’s other retellings. The multiple and conflicting versions of Bon’s involvement with the Sutpen family reinforces the novel’s broader examination of storytelling and the impossibility of reaching any objective truth, particularly about historical events.
Themes
Shreve and Quentin continue their story, picking up the Christmas that Henry invites Bon to accompany him to Sutpen’s Hundred. Shreve speculates what Bon’s intentions were with Sutpen and muses that perhaps Bon only wanted Sutpen to see him, recognize him, and acknowledge him as his son. But Shreve hypothesizes that when Bon arrives at Sutpen’s Hundred and comes face to face with Sutpen, Sutpen does not acknowledge Bon as his son.
Here, Shreve somewhat redacts his earlier portrayal of Bon as scheming seducer, suggesting that Bon’s reasons for ingratiating himself with the Sutpen family were reasonable and just—he merely wanted the father who had abandoned him as a child to acknowledge him as his son. In Shreve’s telling, Sutpen is more in the wrong than Bon for cruelly rejecting him a second time.
Themes
Shreve, in the present, guesses that Ellen must have executed her own scheme to marry Judith to Bon, something she’d been planning since Henry first mentioned Bon in one of his letters home. In Shreve’s telling, Ellen goes out of her way to arrange for Bon and Judith to be alone together—in the parlor or library or in afternoon buggy rides. As they imagine the details of Bon and Judith’s courtship, Shreve and Quentin argue over whether Judith and Bon truly loved each other. Shreve thinks they did, but Quentin resists this notion.
Shreve further shifts blame for the Bon-Henry-Judith tragedy away from Bon and toward the Sutpen family as a whole. He seems to propose that the romance between Bon and Judith might not have happened had Ellen not inserted herself in the middle and done everything she could to encourage their engagement. Quentin’s refusal to believe there was genuine love between Bon and Judith indicates his refusal to romanticize the tragedy of the Sutpen family, which hits home for him in a deeper, more personal way as a Southerner than it does for Shreve, for whom the story is simply entertainment.
Themes
Quentin and Shreve’s story of Henry and Bon continues. Henry and Bon return to Sutpen’s Hundred—Bon’s second visit—the following June. This time Sutpen isn’t there, and nobody knows where he’s gone—nobody but Bon, who must know that Sutpen has gone to New Orleans to confirm the truth once and for all. On this visit, Bon continues to court Judith, and they exchange their first kiss—but nothing else happens. Henry and Bon leave two days later. To Ellen’s dismay, Bon hasn’t yet proposed to Judith.
In this version of the story, Shreve and Quentin continue to shift full blame away from Bon, suggesting that Bon hardly went out of his way to woo Judith—Ellen was far more interested in their courtship than Bon was. As Quentin and Shreve see it, Bon’s central aim had always been to persuade his father to acknowledge him—a noble aim, in their eyes.
Themes
Then Bon returns home to New Orleans. He never learns if Sutpen was actually there. In Shreve’s version of the story, Bon confirms the truth of the lawyer and his mother’s scheme through the lawyer’s strategic questions about the “country families” Bon has met up in Mississippi. September passes, and still neither the lawyer nor Bon’s mother directly brings up the matter of Sutpen with Bon.
Shreve further shifts blame away from Bon, reaffirming his earlier guess that Bon’s mother and the lawyer she hired to follow Sutpen’s movement and business activities are the actors truly at the center of the plot against Sutpen. Note that Shreve’s theories repeatedly contradict one another, with some versions claiming that Bon knows Sutpen is his father and knowingly inserts himself into Sutpen’s life, and others claiming that only Bon’s mother and the lawyer know that Sutpen is Bon’s father.
Themes
Bon returns to school, where Henry is waiting for him. It’s at this point (Shreve guesses) that Bon finally starts writing letters to Judith, with “Charles Bon” written clearly on the outside for Sutpen to see. Bon wonders if maybe Sutpen will send the letter back to him, and that will be the sign—the recognition—that Bon needs.
Shreve here suggests that Bon’s mother and the lawyer’s implicit admission to Bon about Sutpen being Bon’s father was what prompted Bon to invest himself in a romance with Judith. He writes his name, intentionally and visibly, on the outside of letters to Judith as though to goad Sutpen with the threat to escalate the situation with Judith if Sutpen doesn’t do as Bon wishes and acknowledge him as his son.
Themes
Then (in Shreve’s telling), it’s Christmas once more, and Bon and Henry return to Sutpen’s Hundred. Bon expects that this will be the visit that Sutpen acknowledges him. Sutpen returns to the house that evening and summons Henry into the library and tells him the truth about Bon’s identity. Then Henry emerges from the library, and he and Bon walk wordlessly through the garden and into the stable. They saddle their horses and get ready to leave.
This visit marks a major turning point in Bon’s relationship with the Sutpen family, and each character who addresses it proposes a different version of events. In Mr. Compson’s version, Sutpen tells Henry about Bon’s other family in New Orleans. In general Compson’s story—and seemingly in Shreve and Quentin’s, too—Sutpen tells Henry that Bon is their brother. Readers are left in the lurch, as it’s not clear which version of events comes closest to what actually happened.
Themes
In the present, Shreve stops speaking, and he and Quentin sit together in silence. It’s not even clear which of them has been retelling Sutpen’s story, nor does it matter. Their shared retelling of the story transports them back in time to that cold December when Bon and Henry set off together on horseback: “four of them and then just two—Charles-Shreve and Quentin-Henry.” Both realize how Sutpen has set about their ruin, and neither thinks that Bon has known the truth all along, which is why he’s acted the way he has.
This surreal passage reinforces the transformative, reality-shaping effects of storytelling. Shreve and Quentin’s speculative retellings of the Sutpen tragedy metaphorically transport them back in time. This symbolizes how convinced they are that their version of the story reflects the truth of what happened. As they speculate on the past, that imagined version of the past becomes vivid and alive for them—as though it actually happened, when in fact nobody can say for sure that this is the case.
Themes
It’s 1860 now, and Bon and Henry go to Bon’s home in New Orleans together. Henry meets Bon’s mother, “the Haiti-born daughter of the French sugar planter” whose father had lied to Sutpen about her racial background. In Shreve and Quentin’s imagined version of the story, she already knows that Bon is “in love” with Judith—Henry doesn’t even need to tell her. Shreve and Quentin imagine that Bon must have taken Henry to see Bon’s mistress and Charles Etienne (this is what Mr. Compson thinks happened, too). But Shreve and Quentin don’t think the visit bothered Henry as much as Mr. Compson suspects it did. In fact, they suspect that the mistress only made Henry envy Bon more.
This version of the story affirms that all three of the possible truths about Bon that Sutpen could have told Henry that fateful Christmas Eve in the library are true—Bon’s mother (and therefore Bon) has Black ancestry, Bon has a mistress and child in New Orleans, and Bon is Henry and Judith’s half-brother. This version doesn’t make clear which truth Sutpen told Henry, though. It also doesn’t specify whether Henry is aware of Bon’s Black ancestry. In addition, one distinct point on which Shreve and Quentin break with Mr. Compson is on how Henry would have responded to Bon’s showing him his mistress and taking him to a brothel. Mr. Compson believes the experience would have scandalized Henry, but Quentin and Shreve, who perhaps represent a more modern viewpoint, believe Bon’s sexual prowess would only have enticed Henry more.
Themes
In Shreve and Quentin’s telling of the story, the lawyer and Bon will finally reach an understanding—if only an unspoken one. The lawyer will tell Bon that he’s “fortunate,” for most people who are “lucky enough to get [their] revenge […] must pay for it[.]” Bon reacts violently, attacking the lawyer. Eventually he assures the lawyer he won’t hurt him, and the lawyer apologizes, insisting that he “misunderstood [Bon’s] feelings about the matter.”
Shreve and Quentin, like General Compson, believe that Bon was aware that Sutpen was his father, but their accounts differ regarding when Bon found out. In Shreve and Quentin’s version, Bon only confirms his parentage now. And Bon’s violent reaction to the lawyer suggests that Bon doesn’t relish taking revenge on Sutpen. To the contrary, he seems to wish that things could be settled peacefully—that Sutpen would just acknowledge him as his son and have that be that.
Themes
Time passes. Abraham Lincoln is elected president, the South draws out of the Union, and then there are two presidents. Then the Civil War begins. Shreve and Quentin imagine the conversation Henry and Bon must have had around that time. Henry, they imagine, must be shocked that Bon is still planning to go through with his plan to marry Judith to get back at Sutpen. Bon, in their retelling, explains that he waited years for Sutpen to claim him as his son, and yet he refused. At first Bon thought that perhaps Sutpen simply didn’t know Bon was his son, but after Sutpen called Henry into the library that day, it confirmed for Bon that Sutpen did indeed know Bon was his son—he simply refused to recognize him as such. Henry pleads with Bon to call off the revenge plot and to think of Judith, but Bon refuses.
Once more, Quentin and Shreve portray Bon more sympathetically than Mr. Compson does. Their version of the story suggests that Bon was willing to back down and halt his plans to marry Judith if Sutpen would do him the basic courtesy of acknowledging him as his son—and yet Sutpen repeatedly failed to do so. Read as an allegory for the South, then, Sutpen’s refusal to acknowledge Bon or repent for abandoning him symbolizes the South’s refusal to acknowledge or repent for slavery in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Themes
Henry doesn’t disapprove of Bon’s plan. Instead, he tells Bon he needs time to get used to the idea of Bon marrying their sister. Then it’s Christmas 1861. They haven’t heard from Judith because Henry still won’t let Judith write to Bon. The University Grays are organizing on campus, and Bon and Henry join them. Henry comes around to the idea of Bon marrying Judith, noting that “kings have done it.” After that, Henry allows Bon to write to Judith, and Judith sends Bon a metal case with her picture in it. Bon and Henry and their company then go off to war.
Rather bizarrely, perhaps, Henry is accepting of the idea of Bon and Judith’s incestuous marriage, rationalizing what would be considered a major social taboo in his day with the notion that “kings have done it,” alluding to historical occurrences of incest. This peripherally references the biblical story that gives the novel its title, too: in that story, which is from 2 Samuel, Samuel’s son Amnon rapes his half-sister Tamar. Also of note here is the metal case that Judith sends to Bon—it’s important to remember the detail that it’s originally Judith’s photo in the case, as this will be relevant later on.
Themes
At this point, Quentin and Shreve imagine Bon and Henry fighting in the Battle of Shiloh. Shreve insists that Mr. Compson was wrong about one detail of his story—it was Henry who was wounded in this battle, not Bon. He imagines a scene where Henry lies bleeding on the ground, pleading with Bon to just let him die so that Henry won’t have to find out what Bon plans to do about Judith. Bon pleads with Henry to just tell him it’s okay for him to go to Judith—then, maybe he’ll decide not to do it.
Shreve’s confidence in the veracity of his version of the story, in which Henry and not Bon was wounded in battle, is almost laughable: nobody who’s told Bon and Henry’s story thus far can know anything for sure, since they weren’t around to witness it firsthand. What’s more, as a Northerner, Shreve is especially removed from the events he pretends to be an authority on.
Themes
Quentin and Shreve’s story skips forward in time. Now it’s the winter of 1864, and the army has retreated across Alabama and is on its way into Carolina. Bon, who has still not decided what he wants to do about Judith, realizes why he hasn’t been able to decide: he’s still holding out hope that Sutpen will acknowledge him as his son. He would abandon his plans altogether if he were to receive a letter from Sutpen that said, “Forgive me: but: You are my oldest son. Protect your sister; never see either of us again.” But he realizes he’ll never get this message.
Once more, Quentin and Shreve’s story portrays Bon as more sympathetic than Mr. Compson’s story—they suggest that Bon anguished for years about the decision he eventually would have to make, should Sutpen refuse to acknowledge Bon as his son. He didn’t want to draw Judith into an incestuous marriage but sees no alternative way to impose on Sutpen the hurt and betrayal that Sutpen has imposed onto him.
Themes
Now it’s 1865, the South has all but lost the war, and Bon has finally made up his mind to marry Judith. He tells Henry, and Henry is relieved—not about the incest, but that finally a decision has been reached and they can move forward.
If Henry is accepting of Bon’s choice to marry Judith at this point, it’s unclear what happens next that makes Henry prohibit the marriage and betray and murder Bon. The one thing that all versions of the story agree on is that Henry shoots Bon, yet it remains unclear what happened to make him betray the dear friend for whom he earlier repudiated his family.
Themes
In March of 1865, Bon and Henry’s troop is still in Carolina when Lee sends some troops down for reinforcement. Bon sees Sutpen then, for the second time in his life. He sees his own features in Sutpen’s face, and he also sees recognition. Bon considers forcing Sutpen to acknowledge him but doesn’t. After this—and after Henry has given his permission for Bon to marry Judith—Bon writes to Judith to tell her that it’s time for them to marry. Henry reads the letter and sends it to Mississippi. Then one night an orderly comes to Henry and says that the colonel (Sutpen) wants to see Henry in his tent.
Sutpen seals his fate when he clearly recognizes that Bon is his son but refuses to acknowledge him as such. Read as an allegory for the South, his stubborn refusal to acknowledge Bon mirrors the South’s refusal to acknowledge its legacy of slavery. It’s not yet clear why Sutpen wants to see Henry, but given it’s mere months before Bon’s death (which happens in June of 1865), it’s likely that this critical meeting will be where Sutpen says something to Henry that persuades Henry to break with Bon.
Themes
The narrative shifts suddenly to Shreve’s retelling of what Quentin and Miss Rosa encountered in the old house the night Miss Rosa took Quentin there three months prior. He describes a terrified Clytie trying to stop them from going upstairs, and a determined “Aunt Rosa” punching Clytie, who fell to the floor.
The narrative abruptly shifts away from the buildup to Sutpen’s climactic second encounter with Henry, creating tension in the process. The sudden shift to this scene from the recent past with Clytie, Quentin, and Rosa also serves to remind the reader that they’re listening to Shreve and Quentin’s speculations—nothing may be considered factual.
Themes
The action returns to 1865, just after the colonel (Sutpen) has summoned Henry to his tent. It’s been four years since Henry has seen his father, and at first he doesn’t recognize him. Sutpen tells Henry he’s heard that he was shot down in Shiloh. Henry confirms this but doesn’t tell his father that Bon carried him to safety. After a pause, Sutpen tells Henry that he knows Henry has agreed to let Bon marry Judith. Henry says nothing. Sutpen tells Henry he can’t let the marriage happen—not because of the incest, but because Bon’s mother is part Black.
Recall that Henry hasn’t seen his father since their argument in the library about Bon four years prior. Sutpen’s admission about Bon’s Black ancestry here confirms that (at least in Shreve and Quentin’s version of events) Henry hasn’t known this detail about Bon—and that Bon’s mixed-race background is what ultimately turns Henry against him. Thus, while Henry is apparently accepting of the social taboo of incest, the social taboo of interracial marriage is ultimately where he draws the line.
Themes
At some point, Henry leaves the tent and returns to the tent he shares with Bon. Bon notices that Henry is cold and offers him his cloak, but Henry refuses it. Eventually they exit the tent, and presumably Henry fills Bon in on the conversation he had with Sutpen. Bon asks for clarification that it’s the idea of interracial marriage rather than incest that Henry condemns, but Henry says nothing in response.
Interestingly, the narrative doesn’t describe Henry’s immediate response to Sutpen’s admission about Bon. This adds to the general uncertainty surrounding the nature of the Bon-Henry conflict and reaffirms the novel’s stance that it’s difficult if not impossible to reach objective truths regarding history.
Themes
Bon is crushed that Sutpen didn’t even send for him. He says that all Sutpen needed to do was acknowledge him as his son. He would’ve stopped pursuing Judith right then and there; Sutpen didn’t need to disclose Bon’s Black ancestry to Henry to stop him. Henry, realizing that Bon still intends to go through with his plan, cries out in disbelief. But Bon stands firm. He gave Sutpen chance after chance to claim him, and yet Sutpen refused.
Bon’s remark that Sutpen didn’t need to disclose Bon’s race (thereby turning Henry against Bon) to stop him—he only needed to acknowledge Bon as his son, and Bon would’ve halted his courtship of Judith—shows that Sutpen had a choice to acknowledge that he wronged Bon to retain an image of respectability in the racial hierarchy-governed Old South, yet he chose not to do that. By refusing to do that, he initiated a chain of events that would lead to the demise of his own design, turning one son against the other and ultimately depriving himself of a male heir to carry on his legacy.
Themes
Bon pushes his pistol toward Henry and orders Henry to shoot him then. Henry refuses, claiming that Bon is his brother. To this, Bon replies, “No I’m not. I’m the nigger that’s going to sleep with your sister.” Henry then grabs Bon’s pistol as Bon pleads with him to shoot him. Henry pleads with Bon not to marry Judith, but Bon is adamant that Henry will have to stop him.
The language Bon uses here is ugly and direct, using a racial slur to explicitly call attention to the simple fact that Henry’s commitment to the racial hierarchy of the pre-war South is what has caused him to turn on Bon and prohibit Bon’s marriage to Judith.
Themes
In Shreve and Quentin’s retelling, it’s possible that Bon and Henry rode to Sutpen’s Hundred together, approaching the gate side by side. Judith and Clytie heard the shot ring out when Henry shot Bon. Wash Jones helped them carry the body into the house and then went to fetch Miss Rosa, who walked in on Judith crying as she clasped the metal case—containing not her picture but the picture of Bon’s mistress and Bon’s child—in her hand.
In this story, someone replaced Judith’s photo in the metal case with a photo of Bon’s mistress and child. It’s unclear who did this—it could be Bon or Henry, or it could be anyone who got to Bon’s body before Judith. Regardless, it’s possible that whoever swapped the photos did so to conceal Henry’s true reason for killing Bon—Bon’s race—from Judith. It also could be to inspire anger in Judith to prevent her from grieving for Bon. Without proper context, however, it’s impossible to know who swapped the photos or what their reasons were for doing so.
Themes
Shreve, in the present, speculates that Bon was trying to protect Judith when he removed Judith’s picture from the metal case Judith had given him and replaced it with a picture of Bon’s mistress. For if Henry meant what he said—that it was Bon’s being part Black that was what made him disapprove of Bon’s marriage to Judith—then it would “be the only way I will have to say to her, I was no good; do not grieve for me.’” Quentin replies only, “Yes,” and then Shreve says it’s time for them to “get out of this refrigerator and go to bed.”
Shreve assumes it was Bon himself who swapped the photos, and that he did so to inspire in Judith similar feelings of disgust and disapproval as his race inspired in Henry. Judith, like Henry, is a product of the culture of the pre-war South and thus (Bon perhaps assumes) upholds the same beliefs about racial hierarchy and interracial marriage as her brother. In a twisted and tragic way, Bon assumes the worst about Judith (that she would reject him based on his race) while going out of his way to shield her against the pain of grieving him. Thus, Bon ends Shreve’s story a tragic hero of sorts, further indicating how Shreve’s removal from the story’s characters and setting causes him to romanticize it.
Themes
