Gavin Stevens

Charles, his nephew, sums up Gavin Stevens' biography in the middle of the novel: "aged fifty, M.A. Harvard, Ph.D. Heidelberg, Ll.B. Mississippi, American Field Service and Y.M.C.A., France, 1915-1918, County Attorney" (236). Gavin is one of Faulkner's most frequently-used characters, appearing in 16 different fictions - often as a major character. He is descended from an old Yoknapatawpha family and is highly educated, as Charles notes. Charles also refers to Gavin's non-combatant service during World War I: with the "American Field Service . . . in '16 and '17," before America's entry into the War, and then, afterwards, as "a Y.M.C.A. secretary" (200). A major narrative element in The Town is his romantic obsession with Flem Snopes' wife Eula; that is followed in The Mansion with his relationship, both chivalric and avuncular, with Eula's daughter Linda. In both cases, his attraction to the women cannot be dissociated from his repugnance at Flem. He himself sees his role as rescuing Linda from what he calls "Snopesism: a force and power . . . stout and evil" (152). As County Attorney, he feels a similar desire to protect Jefferson from the Snopeses. He is portrayed as an erudite perpetual bachelor with a paternalistic attitude to younger women, whom he seeks to educate and instruct. He later marries Melisandre Backus. He is one of the main narrators of The Mansion.