Philip Jessup Character Analysis

Philip Jessup, Doremus and Emma Jessup’s eldest son, is a successful lawyer who lives in Worcester, Massachusetts. Unlike his father and his siblings Mary and Sissy, Philip staunchly supports Buzz Windrip, whom he sees as the U.S.’s best defense against evil Jews and Communists. After his parents try and fail to escape to Canada, Philip visits them, reveals that the Corpos are appointing him to a judgeship, and attempts to convince his father to support the regime. He even defends the Corpos’ concentration camps and Judge Swan’s arbitrary decision to execute his brother-in-law Fowler Greenhill. Doremus dismisses Philip, recognizing that they will never see eye-to-eye. Philip’s political leanings show how fascist propaganda can easily brainwash even educated professionals, especially by appealing to their self-interest. Meanwhile, Philip and Doremus’s falling-out shows how totalitarian states take over people’s lives by convincing them that their identity depends on politics and that their connections to others only matter if they further the government’s goals.