Harvest

by

Jim Crace

Beldam Father/Old Man Character Analysis

Mistress Beldam’s father, who arrives in the village with his daughter and son-in-law at the beginning of the novel. With Master Beldam, he’s sentenced to a week in the pillory, but because the villagers neglect to feed him or bring him water he dies of exposure before the punishment is over. Enraged by the injustice of her father’s death, Mistress Beldam kills Master Kent’s horse, which gives Edmund Jordan an excuse to persecute the villagers and break up the village. In this sense, the Beldam father is a reminder that the village’s downfall is partly caused by its hostility to outsiders.

Beldam Father/Old Man Quotes in Harvest

The Harvest quotes below are all either spoken by Beldam Father/Old Man or refer to Beldam Father/Old Man. 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:
Renewal and Decay Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

The air was cracking with the retributions and damnations that, in my heart of hearts, I knew that some of us deserved. I prayed that this was just a dream and that soon the couldn’t-care-less clamor of the sunrise birds would rouse me to another day, a better day, a bloodless one, one in which, despite my hand, I’d do my common duty and drag up a log or stone to make that short man tall.

Related Characters: Walter Thirsk (speaker), Beldam Father/Old Man
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:
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Harvest PDF

Beldam Father/Old Man Quotes in Harvest

The Harvest quotes below are all either spoken by Beldam Father/Old Man or refer to Beldam Father/Old Man. 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:
Renewal and Decay Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

The air was cracking with the retributions and damnations that, in my heart of hearts, I knew that some of us deserved. I prayed that this was just a dream and that soon the couldn’t-care-less clamor of the sunrise birds would rouse me to another day, a better day, a bloodless one, one in which, despite my hand, I’d do my common duty and drag up a log or stone to make that short man tall.

Related Characters: Walter Thirsk (speaker), Beldam Father/Old Man
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis: