Previous
The French Architect
Charles Bon’s mistress in New Orleans is referred to as “the octoroon woman” or simply “the octoroon” (an outdated, derogatory term that refers to a person of one-eighth Black ancestry). They have a child, Charles Etienne, with her, and the mistress and Charles Etienne visit Bon’s grave at Sutpen’s Hundred following his death. After Bon’s mistress dies, Charles Etienne comes to live with Judith and Clytie at Sutpen’s Hundred.
Charles Bon’s Mistress Quotes in Absalom, Absalom!
The Absalom, Absalom! quotes below are all either spoken by Charles Bon’s Mistress or refer to Charles Bon’s Mistress. 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 4 Quotes
“[…] Oh he was shrewd, this man whom for weeks now Henry was realising that he knew less and less, this stranger immersed and oblivious now in the formal, almost ritual, preparations for the visit, finicking almost like a woman over the fit of the new coat which he would have ordered for Henry, forced Henry to accept for this occasion, by means of which the entire impression which Henry was to receive from the visit would be established before they even left the house, before Henry ever saw the woman: and Henry, the countryman, the bewildered, with the subtle tide already setting beneath him toward the point where he must either betray himself and his entire upbringing and thinking, or deny the friend for whom he had already repudiated home and kin and all […].”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this passage, which is told from Mr. Compson’s perspective, Mr. Compson continues to relate to Quentin his version of Thomas Sutpen’s life and the tragedies that undid the Sutpen dynasty. Here, Mr. Compson speculates on what happened during the trip to Bon’s home in New Orleans that Bon and Henry took after Henry renounced his family and fled Sutpen’s Hundred following his argument with Sutpen on Christmas Eve. Mr. Compson crafts a narrative where Bon, following Henry’s break with his family, now has Henry in the palm of his hand: Henry rejected his family out of loyalty to Bon, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci voluptate et. Voluptas suscipit alias. In et eveniet. Eaque et repellendus.
Get the entire Absalom, Absalom! LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Charles Bon’s Mistress Character Timeline in Absalom, Absalom!
The timeline below shows where the character Charles Bon’s Mistress appears in Absalom, Absalom!. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4
...would’ve destroyed the letters after she discovered “in Bon’s coat the picture of the octoroon mistress and the little boy.” Judith must have loved Bon as much as Henry did—in fact,...
(full context)
...to Henry—all the “calculation” that went into it. It wouldn’t be the fact of Bon’s mistress and child being Black that bothered Henry—it would have been “the ceremony” that bothered Henry,...
(full context)
...But it doesn’t happen that way. Instead, Henry waits four years for Bon to renounce the woman and child and dissolve the marriage—all the while knowing that the relationship isn’t a marriage...
(full context)
...couldn’t have known the truth about why Sutpen prohibited the marriage. Had she known about the other woman , she might have solved the problem by murdering her.
(full context)
...of his plans for Judith, and Henry, in response, continued to demand that Bon renounce the other woman and her child. Henry (in Mr. Compson’s imagination) would have demanded that Bon not “pass...
(full context)
Chapter 6
...Judith sold the store. In Mr. Compson’s telling, Quentin’s grandfather witnesses the arrival of Bon’s mistress—whom he assumes has come in response to Judith writing her in New Orleans to inform...
(full context)
After Bon’s widow and her child, Charles Etienne, return to New Orleans, Clytie (or maybe Judith) keeps tabs...
(full context)
...understand why Henry murdered Bon, though Quentin’s grandfather doesn’t quite connect the young boy with Bon’s widow , the mixed-race woman he saw at Bon’s graveside years before.
(full context)
Not long after this, Charles Etienne leaves town for a time and returns with a dark-skinned Black woman he married while he was away. She comes from a “two dimensional backwater” place and...
(full context)
Chapter 7
...reason Sutpen prohibited the marriage between Bon and Judith) was about Bon’s relationship with his mistress (using an outdated racial term to describe her). Quentin explains that his father didn’t know...
(full context)
Chapter 8
...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...
(full context)
...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.
(full context)
...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...
(full context)
Chapter 9
...met their end: Charles Bon and his mother killed “old Tom,” Charles Bon and Bon’s mistress killed Judith, and Charles Bon and Clytie killed Henry. Shreve notes that just one Sutpen...
(full context)
