Hugh Todd Character Analysis in Life After Life

Ursula’s father and Sylvie’s husband. Hugh and Sylvie get married relatively young and have five children: Maurice, Pamela, Ursula, Teddy, and Jimmy. Hugh is a banker and the head of the household, but he also fights in World War I as a soldier. When he returns, he doesn’t talk about the war much and continues to be a supportive father to his five children and a supportive husband to Sylvie. In contrast to Sylvie, he is particularly fond of Ursula, he continues to care for and encourage her no matter the circumstances. When Ursula winds up in the hospital following her abortion, he goes to the hospital and holds her hand, which Ursula says is what keeps her tethered to this world. Hugh dies at home during World War II of a heart attack, and Ursula is devastated by his loss, as he was always there to support her.

Hugh Todd Quotes in Life After Life

The Life After Life quotes below are all either spoken by Hugh Todd or refer to Hugh Todd. 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:

Life, Reincarnation, and Alternate Possibilities Theme Icon

“But he forced himself on you,” she fumed, “how can you think it was your fault?”

“But the consequences...” Ursula murmured.

Sylvie blamed her entirely, of course. “You’ve thrown away your virtue, your character, everyone’s good opinion of you.”

Related Characters: (speaker), (speaker), (speaker), ,

Page Number and Citation: 199

Explanation and Analysis:

“Intact?” Ursula echoed, staring at Sylvie in the mirror. What did that mean, that she was flawed? Or broken?

“One’s maidenhood,” Sylvie said. “Deflowering,” she added impatiently when she saw Ursula’s blank expression. “For someone who is far from innocent you seem remarkably naive.”

Related Characters: (speaker), (speaker), , ,

Page Number and Citation: 217

Explanation and Analysis:

Hugh Todd Character Timeline in Life After Life

The timeline below shows where the character Hugh Todd appears in Life After Life. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...She wipes her mouth with her handkerchief, and then bends down to retrieve her father Hugh’s old revolver from her handbag with the handkerchief. She pulls it out and levels it... (full context)

...are alone in the ordeal. Their other maid, Alice, is visiting her mother, Sylvie’s husband Hugh is chasing down his sister Izzie in Paris, and Sylvie does not want to wake... (full context)

Gender Roles and Expectations Theme Icon

...had to be sold, and her mother then got consumption. Seventeen-year-old Sylvie was saved by Hugh, a rising star in the world of banking. (full context)

Lottie had died the next year and Hugh and Sylvie married on her eighteenth birthday. They honeymooned in France before settling in “semirural... (full context)

Hugh brings a telegram into the nursery when Sylvie is feeding Ursula a few months later,... (full context)

Izzie had already been noticeably pregnant when Hugh tracked her down in Paris a few months prior. Adelaide, their mother, had barred the... (full context)

...baby” and buries her underneath a pile of leaves. She starts to fall asleep before Hugh finds her and rescues her. (full context)

...named Teddy) rent a house in Cornwall for the month to vacation by the beach. Hugh stays with them for the first week; Bridget remains with them for the remaining three. (full context)

...leave the snowdrop. Sylvie cradles Ursula, thinking what kind of message she will send to Hugh: “Baby has arrived stop all well stop.” But she wonders if they are “all well,”... (full context)

When Sylvie and the children return from their holiday, Hugh asks if they are glad to be back. Sylvie returns, “Are you glad to have... (full context)

Hugh returns from work and rescues Sylvie from the conversation, offering the women some gin slings.... (full context)

...children best as babies, and that Teddy is particularly special. From the window, she hears Hugh escort Margaret and Lily indoors, offering to show them the electric engine. (full context)

Later, as Sylvie and Hugh read in bed, they concur that Teddy is their best baby yet, joking and agreeing... (full context)

...go play with other nine-year-old boys, collecting things like frogs, worms, or a dead bird. Hugh stays behind to read on the terrace at the back of the house and enjoy... (full context)

Hugh greets Sylvie and the children when they walk home, saying they look kissed by the... (full context)

...night, Sylvie abandons her book for “less cerebral pursuits,” but finds that as she and Hugh have sex she thinks only of George Glover. Hugh comments on how lively she is,... (full context)

Sylvie reads a letter from Hugh, who is now a captain in the army after leaving for the Front a few... (full context)

...Glover, and Bridget spend a good deal of their time knitting for their men—Sylvie for Hugh, Mrs. Glover for George, and Bridget for her new love, Sam Wellington—a groom from Ettringham... (full context)

...the table. As she sits down at the table, Pamela tells Sylvie that she misses Hugh. Christmas had come and gone without him, though Izzie had visited and announced that she... (full context)

...and Sylvie are toasting the peace—though none of them are in a particularly jubilant mood. Hugh and Izzie are still at the Front, and Sylvie won’t believe that Hugh is safe... (full context)

...they’re both crying. Ursula looks out and says that she thinks the man might be Hugh. (full context)

When Izzie had told Hugh and Sylvie of her new job, Sylvie had called her a fool and critiqued her... (full context)

...she comes to the house “in a bit of a jam” having overspent her income. Hugh lends her money, but she is forced to sell her car and move to a... (full context)

Hugh wishes Ursula happy sixteenth birthday, saying that her future is all ahead of her (even... (full context)

...and a bottle of perfume, which Sylvie pronounces to be far too grown-up for Ursula. Hugh glares at Izzie, wondering how she affords all of it. (full context)

Izzie phones Hugh, explaining that Ursula had shown up at her door and would be staying with her... (full context)

That night, Ursula vomits and develops a fever. The world blurs until Hugh appears, smiling at her and saying he will get her to a hospital (though Izzie... (full context)

...offers to help look for her; of the Shawcross girls, he is closest to Nancy. Hugh also offers to go. They find Nancy strangled in a cattle trough, just like the... (full context)

...lives with Ursula for the benefit of her family. Ursula doesn’t mind living alone, though Hugh and Sylvie would have been scandalized. (full context)

Ursula and Derek marry in a registrar’s office, witnessed only by Hugh, Sylvie, and Derek’s mother. Pamela and Teddy are both upset not to have been invited,... (full context)

...if she was really in need of extra money she could always ask Izzie or Hugh, but Derek would be mortified if she did this while they were married because it... (full context)

...cold and tired, and she remembers feeling this way in the hospital after Belgravia, when Hugh’s hand in hers had been the only thing to keep her in this life. The... (full context)

...Sylvie, then, if she might adopt Jimmy. Sylvie is flabbergasted and reveals her shock to Hugh. (full context)

Maurice picks up Ursula at Egerton Gardens to take her to Fox Corner for Hugh’s birthday—though she knows he is only doing this because it would have been awkward to... (full context)

The whole family has gathered for Hugh’s birthday except for Pamela, for whom the journey was too challenging. Jimmy has a few... (full context)

...of the dinner irritated with each other, while Ursula and Jimmy pointedly try to wish Hugh a happy birthday with the wishbone. Amnesty is brought about by the cake, but just... (full context)

...sets off running, not stopping until she reaches her door. She decides not to tell Hugh, as she thinks he’ll only worry. (full context)

...is alive. Two years earlier she had received a letter from Pamela informing her that Hugh had died in 1940 of a heart attack. Ursula had been exceptionally guilty for not... (full context)

...to the chemist, but he has no medicine, and she returns completely defeated. She misses Hugh, wishing that she could die in his arms. (full context)

...Corner and shares a nice dinner with Pamela and Sylvie. For most of the dinner, Hugh is investigating an unexploded bomb in a neighboring field. Ursula finds Pamela drained by taking... (full context)

Hugh returns, and he and Sylvie start to quarrel, as Sylvie asks whether Hugh still lives... (full context)

Later, Hugh and Ursula share a drink as they talk about the worsening conditions in London and... (full context)

At the station, Ursula says goodbye to Hugh, promising to take care of herself. Fred Smith offers Ursula a ride, though he only... (full context)

...stand. Ursula thinks that this is somewhat disingenuous, as Sylvie had been needlessly unkind to Hugh in the few months prior. Jimmy couldn’t get leave, but Teddy had shown up at... (full context)

Izzie is the one who found Hugh, who had died of a heart attack while sitting in a deckchair on the lawn.... (full context)

...interrupts her, confessing rather abruptly that she had had a baby when she was sixteen; Hugh had seen to it that he was adopted by a good family. Izzie says she... (full context)

...for them on his violin. The performance is beautiful, and Ursula finds herself thinking about Hugh’s death. She is gripped by melancholy, and Miss Woolf takes her hand, almost vibrating with... (full context)

...doing some job in the government that she can’t talk about). They instead talk about Hugh, and Ursula feels like they finally give their father the wake he deserved. (full context)

...through a curtain and she is lifted up. Sylvie says, “I shall call her Ursula.” Hugh remarks that he likes the name, and responds, “Welcome, little bear.” (full context)

“Welcome, little bear,” Hugh says. He had been pacing around the hall, waiting to be invited into the room... (full context)

On the boat ride back, their fellow guests assumed Hugh and Izzie were married. He had sent a telegram to his mother, Adelaide, informing her... (full context)

Sylvie wonders what to do with Izzie and her child; Hugh insists that they should keep the baby and say the child is adopted. The child... (full context)

...all there.” He does not progress in the same way that the other children had. Hugh is fond of him, though: Roland is calm, not like Maurice and Pamela. Ursula is... (full context)

...want to try to claim Roland. Sylvie and Izzie both call him “my boy,” and Hugh is also greatly affected by his loss. Adelaide, on the other hand, had declared his... (full context)

Ursula then says she is going to meet Hugh at the train station, but really she is going to meet Benjamin Cole in secret.... (full context)

...is nothing. Ursula doesn’t fully understand what he means. When Ursula is ready to go, Hugh picks her up and says he’s glad she’s feeling better—the house isn’t the same without... (full context)

...so, and comments that it’s raining. She eats a piece of cake and quietly retrieves Hugh’s old revolver from her handbag. She levels it at Hitler’s chest, a move described as... (full context)

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Hugh Todd Character Analysis

Hugh Todd Quotes in Life After Life

Hugh Todd Character Timeline in Life After Life

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