Ashpool Character Analysis in Neuromancer

The patriarch of the Tessier-Ashpool clan, husband of Marie-France, father of the original Jean and Jane, and genetic father of 8Jean and 3Jane. Technically over 200 years old, he’s spent much of his life cryogenically frozen. Together he and Marie-France built the T-A empire, but he and Marie-France disagreed about certain aspects of their project (Marie-France liked AIs, he didn’t) and he eventually strangled her. He appears in the novel only briefly—Molly stumbles across his suicide attempt after she breaks into the Villa Straylight. Ashpool has been frozen for the last 30 years, but 3Jane (with Wintermute’s help) adjusted his program so he had constant bad dreams. Now, awake, he is committed not to go back into his disturbed sleep. Before he goes to sleep he has sex with, and then murders, a Jane clone. Molly sees this, and kills him before he can kill himself.

Ashpool Character Timeline in Neuromancer

The timeline below shows where the character Ashpool appears in Neuromancer. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...notices her. He takes her fletcher and guides her inside. The man introduces himself as Ashpool. He tells Molly that she’s interrupted his suicide. (full context)

Ashpool explains that he’s been asleep for the past thirty years, having strange dreams for much... (full context)

Molly takes her gun back, exploring the room. She discovers Ashpool killed the Jane in his bed. Molly looks at the woman’s face; through the simstim,... (full context)

...and Case’s computer as well. Dixie passes on information from Wintermute, he told him most Tessier-Ashpools are in cold sleep. 3Jane is the only one awake in Straylight. The other two... (full context)

...insanity—he understands Armitage/Corto, a man who was broken and then reconstructed, but he doesn’t understand Ashpool. Case realizes he’d never considered anyone as powerful as Ashpool as human. When he thought... (full context)

...who act predictable, but struggles to predict human’s inherently unpredictable behavior, like Molly running into Ashpool. (full context)

Self-Interest vs. Human Connection Theme Icon

Case wonders why Ashpool killed himself, and the Finn/Wintermute gives him an abbreviated version of the man’s history: Ashpool... (full context)

...a boy on the diving board of a pool, a girl sitting with wine, and Ashpool’s corpse. She fires a grenade at the boy and darts at Ashpool, but the figures... (full context)

...killed her father, which she knows because she watched it on a monitor. Molly explains Ashpool had killed one of 3Jane’s clones, which doesn’t bother 3Jane. (full context)

...her family into a “symbiotic relationship with,” the AIs, all “corporate decisions made for” them. Ashpool, who disagreed with his wife’s plans, killed Marie-France, which 3Jane knows because of conversations with... (full context)