Emma Jessup is Doremus Jessup’s wife. They met in high school, and after three children and several decades of stable marriage, they love one another but often fail to see eye-to-eye. In many ways, Emma is a stereotypical housewife: she enjoys knitting, baking, and romance novels. She is unfailingly loyal and honest, but also very conventional and naïve, especially when it comes to politics. This frustrates Doremus, who prides himself on his moral and political awareness. While Doremus worries about the future of the United States under Buzz Windrip, Emma cares far more about her family’s safety, reputation, and financial situation. She disagrees with Doremus’s decision to join the New Underground (but tolerates it anyway), and she never notices his relatively overt affair with Lorinda Pike. But most of all, she worries endlessly about his safety, especially after he ends up at Trianon. After Doremus’s imprisonment and Mary’s death, Emma takes her grandson David to live with her Corpo son Philip. The character of Emma represents the way that ordinary middle-class people fail to understand the true consequences of fascist regimes like Windrip’s—and end up supporting them out of ignorance or convenience.
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Emma Jessup Character Timeline in It Can’t Happen Here
The timeline below shows where the character Emma Jessup appears in It Can’t Happen Here. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...Hunkies and Chinks” out of the country. The whole crowd sings along. Doremus Jessup’s wife, Emma, sarcastically praises him for shutting up Lorinda Pike. The Jessups agree not to invite “the...
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Chapter 2
...Doremus Jessup will go to Francis Tasbrough’s house for an afterparty. But first, he drives Emma home. They pass through the sleepy, picturesque New England granite-mining town of Fort Beulah, where...
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Chapter 3
Jessup is a fair, competent, and politically independent editor. He and his wife, Emma, first met in high school, and they now have three children. The oldest is 32-year-old...
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Chapter 5
...Jessup waking up and stretching in the morning. He’s a rough sleeper, so he and Emma sleep in separate bedrooms. It’s Saturday, the day of Prang’s show, but Jessup’s son Philip...
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...officially endorses Buzz Windrip and declares that the League will propel him to the presidency. Emma Jessup comments that Prang sounds like a left-winger, but Doremus replies that Buzz Windrip will...
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Chapter 6
...after Prang has endorsed Windrip, Jessup is speechless and worried in the mornings, which worries Emma.
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...weren’t for his wealthy ancestors, Jessup realizes, he would probably be one of Prang’s “Dispossessed.” Emma still doesn’t understand him, but he tolerates her complaints.
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Chapter 8
Emma Jessup finds Windrip’s platform confusing and contradictory, but Doremus thinks it’s clear. Windrip will bring...
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...he can to stop Windrip—but that he and his family might be shot for it. Emma asks him to be careful and worries about his carelessness. But Father Perefixe, Sissy, Lorinda...
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Chapter 14
...“too old to make love.” He suddenly feels much better. After a brief conversation about Emma, Jessup and Pike discuss their affair, which they agree is exciting, harmless, and well-hidden.
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...denounces the suggestion, but Sissy says that an affair probably wouldn’t even hurt her mother Emma. Doremus asks if Sissy even knows anything about sex. Sissy sarcastically jokes that she’s happy...
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Chapter 18
...that Itchitt might try to turn him in and take over the Informer. At home, Emma worries that the Corpos will put Doremus in prison, while Sissy isn’t sure what she...
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Chapter 19
...over the building, and his Minute Men take Doremus Jessup to jail. Jessup worries about Emma and Lorinda. He realizes that one of the Minute Men is Aras Dilley, but Dilley...
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...But now, it may be too late. Jessup worries that he’ll have to choose between Emma and Lorinda, and he wonders how Lorinda’s case went in court. Just after midnight, Aras...
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Chapter 20
...speak at the dinner table. In contrast, nine-year-old David talks constantly, bothering everyone else, and Emma constantly worries, but about the wrong things: she thinks that Doremus going to jail reflects...
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...badly as he can. He often considers quitting his job, but he has to support Emma, Sissy, Mary, and David. Still, he feels no different from a dishonest salesman who sells...
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...year. But he doesn’t know what he would do in Canada, and he knows that Emma would hate living in poverty. So, like people everywhere living under tyranny, Jessup continues weighing...
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Chapter 21
...and he tries and fails to read a popular new romance novel. He listens to Emma and Mrs. Candy discuss chicken pie recipes instead. Sissy comes home and declares that she’s...
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Chapter 23
...Pike in the bathroom and admits that he’s planning to return. Buck Titus packs Doremus, Emma, Sissy, Mary, David, and Foolish the dog into his car. Julian Falck says goodbye to...
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...stuck in a snowdrift. Sissy, Buck, and Doremus struggle to get it moving again, while Emma makes coffee in an abandoned shack. Everyone drinks it with Mrs. Candy’s cake. The car...
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Chapter 25
...Fort Beulah shops, pretending to enjoy golf, or spending all day at home, which bothers Emma. (She even encourages him to go visit Buck Titus and Lorinda Pike.) Once, Jessup visits...
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Chapter 26
...Underground contact Jessup, who is busy running the press. Lorinda Pike sets the type, and Emma, Sissy, and Mary help bind pamphlets.
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Chapter 27
...space to carry on their affair—while neither of them believes in monogamy or worries about Emma, they prefer not to sneak around. Jessup finds Pike more attractive than ever, and he...
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Chapter 30
...local newspaperman of publishing the New Underground pamphlets and send him to the concentration camp. Emma Jessup doesn’t understand why Doremus bothers to criticize the authorities, but she’s glad that Lorinda...
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...being. Jessup struggles to sleep, and for the first time in years, he yearns for Emma. On the Fourth of July, the Jessup family attends the Minute Men’s grand parade. That...
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Chapter 31
...Dr. Olmsted visit him from Fort Beulah. Olmsted updates Jessup on his family and friends: Emma, Mary, and Sissy are safe at home, Lorinda Pike is still free, and Buck Titus...
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...For instance, Clarence Little reports Henry Veeder’s escape plan and gets released as a reward. Emma, Mary, Sissy, David, and even Philip (who’s now a judge for the Corpos) all visit...
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Chapter 34
...from Massachusetts and declares that everyone in the family is insane—except himself and his mother, Emma, whom he tells to rent out the house and move in with him. She does,...
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Chapter 38
...still alive in the camps, Father Perefixe is running the Fort Beulah New Underground, and Emma and David are happy with Philip in Worcester. Sissy is still working for the New...
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...Rev. Mr. Falck, Henry Veeder, John Pollikop, Truman Webb, and even Karl Pascal. Lorinda Pike, Emma, Sissy, Mary, David, Foolish, and Mrs. Candy wait in the distance. Shad Ledue starts to...
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