An abusive husband who emotionally and physically abuses Celie in order to control her. He carries on a relationship with the singer Shug throughout much of their marriage. He has multiple children by multiple women, but his overriding love is for Shug. After both Shug and Celie leave him, Mr. _____ realizes how much he depended on them and how cruelly he acted toward Celie in particular. He "finds religion" and apologizes to Celie, and they close out the novel as friends; Mr. gives Celie a purple frog to symbolize their new friendship.
Mr. _____ (Albert) Quotes in The Color Purple
The The Color Purple quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. _____ (Albert) or refer to Mr. _____ (Albert). 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:
).
Note: all page and citation info for the quotes below refers to the Pocket Books edition of The Color Purple published in 1985.
Letter 7
Quotes
Fact is, I got to get rid of her. She too old to be living here at home. And she a bad influence on my other girls . . . . She ain't smart either, and I'll just be fair, you have to watch her or she'll give away everything you own. But she can work like a man.
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Letter 9
Quotes
I lay there thinking bout Nettie while he [Mr. _____] on top of me, wonder if she safe. And then I think bout Shug Avery. I know what he doing to me he done to Shug Avery and maybe she like it. I put my arm around him.
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Letter 90
Quotes
And I see they [the children] think that me and Nettie and Shug and Albert and Samuel and Harpo and Sofia and Jack and Odessa real old . . . But I don't think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt.
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Mr. _____ (Albert) Character Timeline in The Color Purple
The timeline below shows where the character Mr. _____ (Albert) appears in The Color Purple. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Letter 4
...Celie and Nettie. Nettie begins dating an older man, a widower referred to only as Mr. ____ , but Celie advises Nettie to keep studying and not to marry Mr. ____, who...
(full context)
Letter 5
...will begin sexually abusing Nettie, so she changes her mind and tells Nettie to wed Mr. ____ Celie reveals to God that she no longer gets her period, meaning she can no...
(full context)
Letter 6
Mr. ____ asks for Nettie's hand in marriage, but Celie's father refuses, saying that Mr. ____ is...
(full context)
Letter 7
Mr. ____ comes again to ask for Nettie's hand in marriage. Celie's father says no, again, but...
(full context)
Mr. ____ says that Celie is unattractive, but her father says she is a good worker, that...
(full context)
Letter 8
It takes Mr. ____ most of the spring to decide whether or not to marry Celie. In the meantime,...
(full context)
Mr. ____ returns toward the beginning of summer and looks anxious and tired. He says he needs...
(full context)
Letter 9
On the day of her wedding, Celie is attacked by one of Mr. ____ 's children, the oldest boy, aged twelve. This boy, who is later revealed to be...
(full context)
Celie tries, after the wedding ceremony, to detangle Mr. ____ 's daughters' hair, and realizes the two girls haven't had baths since their mother's death....
(full context)
Letter 10
...Celie asks who the child's father is, and the woman replies that it's the Reverend Mr. ____ (later revealed to be Samuel). This last name is unfamiliar to Celie.
(full context)
...moment. The Reverend's wife asks about Celie's husband, and, finding out who it is, says Mr. ____ is a handsome man. Celie thinks to herself that she cannot tell when men are...
(full context)
Letter 11
...although Nettie feels guilty abandoning her stepmother to Pa's abusive ways. Nettie joins Celie and Mr. ____ in their home nearby.
(full context)
Celie reports that Mr. ____ still "has eyes" for Nettie. Nettie continues studying for school while in their home, and...
(full context)
Mr. ____ continues to make advances to Nettie, and strongly implies that he wishes to have sex...
(full context)
Nettie is happy to leave Mr. ____ and his "rotten" children, but feels guilty to leave Celie. She promises Celie she will...
(full context)
Letter 12
Mr. ____ 's sisters, named Kate and Carrie, visit Celie at home with Mr. ____ and tell...
(full context)
Kate tells Mr. ____ that Celie needs new clothes; Celie has been wearing the same clothes in Mr ___'s...
(full context)
Kate gets in an argument with Mr. ____ about Harpo, Mr. ____'s eldest son, who says that he won't work, that women are...
(full context)
Letter 13
Harpo asks his father why he beats Celie; Mr. ____ answers that he beats her because she's his wife. When Celie is beaten by Mr....
(full context)
Letter 14
Shug is coming to town to sing. Mr. ____ prepares himself to meet her (he has not seen her for an undefined but significant...
(full context)
Letter 15
Mr. ____ spends the entire long weekend with Shug. When he comes home, without Shug, he is...
(full context)
Letter 16
Mr. ____ stops working in the fields altogether. He sits on the porch and tells Celie and...
(full context)
Letter 17
...is too young, he has very little money, and he comes from a bad family. Mr. ____ tells Harpo, later, why this is true: because Harpo's mother (Annie Julia) was killed by...
(full context)
People say that Celie is skilled with Mr. ____ 's children, but the three children other than Harpo are mean to her, and they...
(full context)
Sofia, seven months pregnant, comes to the house with Harpo to meet Mr. ____ . Mr. ____ asks who the father is, trying to insult Sofia; she replies, calmly,...
(full context)
Mr. ____ says he will not let Sofia and Harpo marry, even though Sofia is pregnant. Sofia...
(full context)
Letter 18
...him work harder), and he and Sofia renovate a small shack on the edge of Mr. ____ 's property, where they intend to live.
(full context)
...their new home. Harpo has begun working harder in the fields, since Sofia has arrived. Mr. ____ tells Harpo that Sofia will eventually "switch traces" on Harpo, meaning that she will be...
(full context)
Letter 19
Harpo tells his father that he cannot get Sofia to "mind" him, or obey him. Mr. ____ asks if Harpo beats her; Harpo says that he has not tried. Mr. ____ says...
(full context)
Harpo returns to Mr. ____ 's home one day, looking cut-up and bruised. Harpo explains to Celie that he got...
(full context)
Letter 20
One day, Celie is walking by Sofia and Harpo's shack, near the edge of Mr. _____'s property, when she sees the two of them fighting, and hears the enormous clatter they...
(full context)
Letter 21
...of Sofia's ability to stand up to Harpo; Celie is unable to do this with Mr. ____ . Sofia explains that her brothers and father were all abusive when she was younger....
(full context)
Sofia admits that she feels sorry for Celie, who has no power over Mr. ____ , but instead must do exactly as Mr. ____ says. Sofia and Celie talk about...
(full context)
Sofia and Celie end up laughing about Mr. ____ , whom Sofia says Celie should crack on the skull and kill. Although this does...
(full context)
Letter 22
After the sermon, Mr. ____ hitches his wagon and leaves for five days; he is enraged that even the preacher...
(full context)
...excited, she can barely speak to Shug as Shug is helped up the steps by Mr. ____ . When Mr. ____ introduces his wife to his lover, Shug's only reply to Celie...
(full context)
Letter 23
In her sickness, Shug lies in bed in Mr. ____ 's house and lashes out at him, calling him a "boy" and not a "man."...
(full context)
...anxious tears, as he continues to worry about Shug. Shug refers to Mr. ____ as Albert, which is his given name.
(full context)
Letter 24
Even though Shug has been his lover, and they have had three children together, Mr. ____ is nervous about giving Shug a bath. Celie therefore offers to bathe Shug, and gazes...
(full context)
Letter 25
...returns, Shug has nibbled some of Celie's ham and biscuit off her plate. Celie tells Mr. ____ this, and he is relieved that Shug has finally eaten something.
(full context)
Letter 26
...combed for a very long time, and is considered quite messy, even by those like Mr. ____ who find Shug very attractive. As Celie works, Shug begins humming a tune that Celie...
(full context)
Letter 27
Mr. ____ 's father comes to the house and yells at Mr. ____ for taking in Shug...
(full context)
Mr. ____ 's father says that Shug comes from a bad family, and that Shug's mother makes...
(full context)
...Shug's stitches are crooked—like her song, Celie thinks to herself. Celie continues to stitch between Mr. ____ and Shug, sitting on the porch talking to Tobias. Celie thinks to herself that, in...
(full context)
Letter 29
Celie says that she married Mr. ____ to look after his children; the two do not love each other. Sofia and Harpo,...
(full context)
Letter 30
...conversation causes Celie to think about her own marriage. Celie thinks about her lovemaking with Mr. ____ ; he cares only about his own pleasure, and Celie dreams about Shug when they're...
(full context)
Letter 33
...is the Queen Honeybee, comes down from Celie's house to check out the bar, and Mr. ____ , Harpo, and Swain agree to book Shug for a few shows there.
(full context)
Shug prepares to sing one night, and Celie and Mr. ____ accompany her to the bar, despite Mr. ____'s protestations that Celie should not be allowed...
(full context)
...starts to cry: she loves looking at Shug, but Shug only wants to look at Mr. ____ . Then Shug sings a song she dedicates to Celie—the "dirty" song she began composing...
(full context)
Letter 34
...growing stronger, and tells Celie it will soon be time for her to leave their Mr. ____ 's home. Shug is singing regularly on the weekends, now, at Harpo's bar. Celie grows...
(full context)
Shug asks why Mr. ____ beats Celie, and Celie explains that he's upset because Celie is Celie, and not Shug....
(full context)
Letter 35
Shug begins staying in Mr. ____ 's room, especially after she sings at Harpo's. Shug asks Celie whether Celie minds that...
(full context)
Afterward, Celie repeats that she does not mind when Shug sleeps with Mr. ____ . But Celie then admits, in the letter to God, that when she hears Shug...
(full context)
Letter 36
...night at Harpo's bar, Sofia arrives with a new boyfriend, a boxer named Buster Broadnax. Mr. ____ asks Sofia where her children are, and Sofia replies that they're "at home," meaning with...
(full context)
Letter 37
Mr. ____ , who is on friendly terms with the white sheriff, convinces that Sheriff to let...
(full context)
Letter 38
When Celie and Mr. ____ visit Sofia in jail some time later, they find that Sofia has been placed on...
(full context)
Letter 39
At dinner later, Mr. ____ , Celie, Shug, Odessa, Buster, and the rest of the family think of how to...
(full context)
Letter 40
Shug, Mr. ____ , and Celie dress Squeak up to resemble a white woman, applying extra make-up to...
(full context)
Letter 45
Shug shows Mr. ____ a car that she has purchased, which is hers and Grady's. Although Shug has not...
(full context)
Letter 46
Mr. ____ and Grady spend the Christmas holiday drinking, and Shug and Celie catch up and talk....
(full context)
Shug asks whether Mr. ____ still beats Celie. Celie replies that Mr. ____ is kinder to her, in general, though...
(full context)
Letter 47
One day Mr. ____ and Grady go off together, and Celie and Shug talk again. Shug asks Celie about...
(full context)
...talks briefly, about her mother's death, her sister Nettie's departure, and her terrible time raising Mr. ____ 's children—all of whom, except for Harpo, hate Celie and refuse to obey her. When...
(full context)
Letter 48
Grady and Mr. ____ return, and Mr. ____ tells Shug to leave the bed she's sharing with Celie (they...
(full context)
Letter 49
Shug reports to Celie that she has seen Mr. ____ at the mailbox, taking letters with "funny stamps" and putting them away, not showing them...
(full context)
Letter 50
Shug and Mr. ____ become physically intimate again, and Grady and Celie are upset—since they both love Shug. Celie...
(full context)
One day, Celie becomes so enraged with Mr. ____ that she picks up a razor and considers slitting Mr. ____'s throat with it, but...
(full context)
...in Celie's room one night, and tries to talk with her, while Celie stews over Mr. ____ . Shug tells how she and Mr. ____ fell in love, and how Mr. ____...
(full context)
Shug continues telling of her romance with Mr. ____ . Mr. ____ eventually married Annie Julia, his first wife, because Mr. ____'s parents would...
(full context)
Letter 51
Shug and Celie realize that Mr. ____ keeps the letters from Nettie in a trunk in his bedroom. Shug and Celie plan...
(full context)
Letter 52
Nettie's first letter describes the immediate aftermath of her departure from Celie's and Mr. ____ 's house, when Mr. ____ chased her down the road and tried to drag her...
(full context)
Letter 54
Nettie's next letter shows Nettie's increased anxiety that Albert is following through on his promise—that he is not, in fact, delivering Nettie's letters to...
(full context)
Letter 59
...words in them she does not understand—Celie tells Shug that she again wishes to kill Mr. ____ , for hiding the letters away from Celie for so long. Shug tells her not...
(full context)
Celie says, by way of bargaining, that she won't kill Mr. ____ if Shug can convince Mr. ____ that Shug should sleep in Celie's room from now...
(full context)
Letter 60
Celie is still angry with Mr. ____ , and this dampens her sexual desires for Shug. Shug suggests that Celie needs an...
(full context)
Letter 74
...the mayor and his wife's children, six months early, and is released to Celie's and Mr. ____ 's home. Her children have barely seen her and have grown up with Squeak as...
(full context)
Letter 75
...Squeak, as they prepare (Grady and Squeak, and Celie and Shug) to leave for Memphis. Mr. ____ tries, halfheartedly, to make Celie stay, saying that she will come back from Memphis, broke,...
(full context)
Letter 79
Celie sees Mr. ____ at Sofia's mother's funeral. Mr. ____ has "found religion," and appears to want to mend...
(full context)
Sofia tells Celie, later, about Mr. ____ : how, after Celie left for Memphis, Mr. _____ seemed to lose all will to...
(full context)
Letter 84
Mr. ____ and Celie have a conversation about Shug's departure and about Celie's pant business. Celie tells...
(full context)
Letter 87
...the time of the supposed sinking of Nettie's ship—it, like the other letters, comes from Mr. ____ 's trunk, and is therefore not recent.) Sometimes Celie receives postcards from Shug, with information...
(full context)
...her. But Celie feels that she does not hate Mr. ____ (whom she now calls Albert), since Shug loves him still, and since he still loves Shug. Celie tells Albert that...
(full context)
Sofia tells Celie and Albert stories about Eleanor Jane, who is now married to a man named Stanley Earl, and...
(full context)
Celie and Albert talk more about Shug, each discussing how much they've loved her, and how they've now...
(full context)
Celie teaches Albert how to sew a few stitches, and they begin talking about life in Africa, as...
(full context)
...will stop at nothing to harm those whom they believe to have harmed them first. Albert replies that the Olinkans sure have "a heap of time to sit and think about"...
(full context)
Letter 89
...he also sees how much love surrounds him—Shug's, Celie's now, and Sofia's, and the children's. Albert believes it is his religious duty, while on earth, to wonder at the marvels of...
(full context)
