Thomas Sutpen
E528784
Thomas Sutpen is the ruthless, enigmatic plantation owner at the center of William Faulkner’s Southern Gothic novel, whose obsessive pursuit of a self-made dynasty drives the book’s tragic exploration of race, class, and the legacy of the American South.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Thomas Sutpen canonical | 4 |
| Henry Sutpen | 1 |
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
fictional character
ⓘ
literary character ⓘ protagonist ⓘ |
| appearsIn | Absalom, Absalom! NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| appearsInForm | novel ⓘ |
| appearsInGenre |
Southern Gothic fiction
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
modernist literature ⓘ |
| associatedWithPlace |
Mississippi
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Yoknapatawpha County NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| centralThemeRelation |
class and social hierarchy
ⓘ
race in the American South ⓘ slavery and its legacy ⓘ the American South’s historical trauma ⓘ the rise and fall of self-made dynasties ⓘ |
| characterTrait |
ambitious
ⓘ
calculating ⓘ enigmatic ⓘ obsessive ⓘ ruthless ⓘ |
| createdBy | William Faulkner NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| createdInLanguage | English ⓘ |
| firstPublicationContext | Absalom, Absalom! (1936) ⓘ |
| fullName | Thomas Sutpen NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| gender | male ⓘ |
| hasFamilyName | Sutpen NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasProperty |
morally compromised methods
ⓘ
secretive past ⓘ self-made origin story ⓘ |
| linkedToTheme |
incest and family taboo
ⓘ
miscegenation ⓘ the failure of the American dream in the South ⓘ violence and domination ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | 20th-century American literature ⓘ |
| motivatedBy |
desire for social elevation
ⓘ
will to power ⓘ |
| narrativeFunction |
catalyst for the Sutpen family tragedy
ⓘ
embodiment of Southern hubris ⓘ symbol of the corrupt foundations of Southern wealth ⓘ |
| nationality | American (fictional) ⓘ |
| occupation | plantation owner ⓘ |
| pursues | creation of a powerful family dynasty ⓘ |
| relatedWorkUniverse | Yoknapatawpha County saga NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| roleInWork |
central figure of the Sutpen family saga
ⓘ
founder of Sutpen’s Hundred plantation ⓘ |
| socialStatus | Southern planter aristocracy (self-made) ⓘ |
| symbolizes |
the destructive pursuit of absolute control
ⓘ
the moral bankruptcy of slaveholding society ⓘ |
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Henry Sutpen