Previous
Ellen Coldfield
Clytie (short for Clytemnestra) is Thomas Sutpen’s daughter by an enslaved Black woman. She is born into slavery on Sutpen’s plantation but later lives there as a servant. Sutpen appears to treat Clytie relatively well, and Sutpen’s enslavement of her is portrayed less as a consequence of his inherent racism and more as a reflection of his ambition to gain respectability among Southern gentility. (Of course, Sutpen’s specific motives for enslaving his own daughter don’t make her enslavement any less cruel.) Clytie lives with Judith (and later Rosa) in Sutpen’s mansion following Bon’s murder, and she helps raise Charles Etienne. After Charles Etienne and his unnamed wife’s deaths, Clytie also raises Charles Etienne’s son, Jim Bond. Clytie cares for Henry Sutpen after he returns to Sutpen’s Hundred to die after living for years as a fugitive. At the end of the story, Rosa summons an ambulance to deliver medical care to Henry, and Rosa mistakes it for the police. In a panic, she lights the house on fire, killing herself and Henry and finally bringing Sutpen’s “design” to its long-awaited end.
Clytie Quotes in Absalom, Absalom!
The Absalom, Absalom! quotes below are all either spoken by Clytie or refer to Clytie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
He brought the two women deliberately; he probably chose them with the same care and shrewdness with which he chose the other livestock—the horses and mules and cattle—which he bought later on.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5
Quotes
I waited for him exactly as Judith and Clytie waited for him: because now he was all we had, all that gave us any reason for continuing to exist, to eat food and sleep and wake and rise again: knowing that he would need us, knowing as we did (who knew him) that he would begin at once to salvage what was left of Sutpen’s Hundred and restore it.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9
Quotes
“Yes. I remember your grandpaw. You go up there and make her come down. Make her go away from here. Whatever he done, me and Judith and him have paid it out. You go and get her. Take her away from here.”
Get the entire Absalom, Absalom! LitChart as a printable PDF.
Clytie Quotes in Absalom, Absalom!
The Absalom, Absalom! quotes below are all either spoken by Clytie or refer to Clytie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
He brought the two women deliberately; he probably chose them with the same care and shrewdness with which he chose the other livestock—the horses and mules and cattle—which he bought later on.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5
Quotes
I waited for him exactly as Judith and Clytie waited for him: because now he was all we had, all that gave us any reason for continuing to exist, to eat food and sleep and wake and rise again: knowing that he would need us, knowing as we did (who knew him) that he would begin at once to salvage what was left of Sutpen’s Hundred and restore it.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9
Quotes
“Yes. I remember your grandpaw. You go up there and make her come down. Make her go away from here. Whatever he done, me and Judith and him have paid it out. You go and get her. Take her away from here.”
